Can I fear if Jesus is near? Oh, thank you, Lord. I just want to take just a second and thank the Lord for putting me in the house of God tonight. I needed to be here. By rights, I probably could have excused myself and stayed home. I hope it was worth it. Oh, it's good. I want you to turn in your Bible to Exodus chapter 15, please. Spoke of these things on Wednesday night at prayer meeting. Just a couple of thoughts the Lord had given me throughout that day. Some things that I noticed and things that he highlighted to me and just kind of shed a little bit of light on. It was just precious to me. It set our minds right for prayer that night. Tonight, I just want to share with you what the Lord has done for me. We'll see it play out. We'll see it play out tonight. Let's look at this, Exodus chapter 15. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord. and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he overthrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He is become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him in habitation. My Father is God, and I will exalt him. Brother Mike Batt, would you please ask the Lord to bless this time of preaching? Father, we want to exalt you tonight. Yes, Lord. Thank you for your word, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You see there in verse two, Moses says this, he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation. A habitation is a place where you live, it's a place where you're abiding, it's a place where you can stay, it's yours. There's been a habitation that's been prepared for my family and I over across the road. I thank God for it. It's a blessing. Each of you here has a habitation, a place that God has prepared for you. Those of you who are still young and at home, thank God that he's placed you in a habitation where you can be at home. Far too often I see young ones breaking out of the bounds of their habitation before they're supposed to. And it hurts. But Moses has just been delivered, the children of Israel have been delivered out of Egypt, and they've crossed that Red Sea, and they're about to start their wanderings in the wilderness. And just remember, three days from now they're complaining. Okay, just keep that in mind. Unless we get too high-minded. Moses says, I'm going to prepare God a habitation. Now what did he mean by that? Where was God going to dwell? Bible students, where was he going to dwell? Between the cherubims. And where was that ark going to dwell so that God could speak to man on earth? Behind the veil of that tabernacle. And so what was Moses saying? He said, I'm going to prepare him a habitation. We're gonna set forth, we're gonna make a place where God can be on earth. We're gonna do what he said and then we're gonna prepare this thing so that God can be with mankind. Now what's interesting is at this point, Moses hasn't gotten any instruction on a tabernacle or anything. But look at this, it was in his will to do that. I will prepare him in habitation. Now, as we see this progress here tonight, and I don't know how long it'll take, but we're going to go through a couple of things here. The God of heaven abiding on earth. What an amazing thing. There's a Christmas song that we've began learning with the choir for our cantata that we're gonna do, and in it, it's the first time we ever sang it, it's a little rough, it's kinda hard, the timing's weird, it's one of those ones, okay? My goodness, the words. Talks about God, the creator, the almighty, being contracted to a span. The one who measures the heavens in a span. Being contracted to a span. And that just amazes me. God prepared him a body. There's a lot of bodies right here before me that God has prepared as an habitation for himself. Now let's look at this. Go to 2 Chronicles 6. 2 Chronicles 6. You know, God has really kind of drawn me in and sucked me into 1 Kings 8 a lot lately. This is where Solomon's prayer and he's dedicating the temple, 2 Chronicles 6. And as he's going through all these things, he's lifting up his voice to God and he's declaring just some great truths about the mighty power of God and the glory of God and the goodness of God. And Solomon lays out these prayers and requests that are fulfilled in Daniel and those that are carried away off into Babylon and all those that would look to God and pray to him in earnest. It's those things where, that when thy people, they turn their back on you and you carry them off into captivity, but yet they turn to you. Solomon says, then hear thou out of thy dwelling place and forgive. Oh, yeah, he's right. Oh, thank God for that. I thank God for his goodness. I thank God for his forgiveness and his mercy and his great grace. Oh, it's just tremendous tonight. But in 2 Chronicles 6, it's the same account, essentially. A couple of things are a little bit different. The thing that draws me here is, again, that word habitation. We see Moses preparing and setting in his heart, I will prepare an habitation for him. David had set that same thing in his heart, but God said, no, you're a bloody man. You can't, but your son can. You know, there's often times when I think of the things that I've done in my life and the ways that I've just absolutely destroyed other people's lives and just the wickedness that I've been a part of. And I know there's some things that God has said, no, you can't do that. There's a generation coming up after me that can. Oh, and if I can lay aside all of the materials, and if I can lay aside all of the wherewithal, and I can clear the way, and I can get that way ready, and that way Jace's generation can seek the Lord. And they'll be able to do those things. My sons will be able to do those things that I couldn't, because I transgressed. There's certain things that I've just ruined. Oh, but the goodness of God. Well, 2 Chronicles 6, hallelujah. Verse one, then said Solomon, the Lord hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness, but I have built a house of habitation for thee and a place for thy dwelling forever. Amen and amen. And what's amazing to me is this temple is going to be destroyed. It's going to be laid absolutely waste. There's not going to be anything left of it. It's just going to be shambles at the end of the thing. Oh, and when they come back from captivity and we see Nehemiah building the walls and Ezra setting forth to build that temple and that foundation is laid. And there were the aged men that saw the first temple. They remembered its glory and its grandeur and all, and they wept for the size of the second. Oh, but then there was the young man that saw God at work. And the glory of that second temple was going to be better than the first. You know why? Because the Son of God was going to step through those doors. Oh, and God has prepared for him another temple. There's many of them seated right here tonight. But we'll get there. I have built a house of habitation for thee. So Moses prepared that tabernacle, he prepared that ark, he prepared all of those things and was getting ready for all of this and he says, I will prepare a habitation for God. Solomon comes along and he says, I have built a house of habitation for thee. That's a second habitation, a temple where God could dwell and where God would establish his name forever. where he would dwell on this earth. If you want to think of this, you know, Israel is spoken as the apple of God's eye. What is that? Well, it's the very center. It's your pupil. It's that very center of the thing. It's the center most object of your focus. To me, my wife is the apple of my eye. She is the absolute center of my focus. And if I keep her in proper perspective with God, And that the reason that she's the center of my focus is because God is the center of my focus and he said to love her. Oh, everything will be okay. But Israel is the apple of God's eye. And so then we have the nation of Israel in the land. And then centering into that even further, you have this little city called Jerusalem. And then centering in even a little bit further than that, you have now the temple. Go in behind that veil, and there sits the Ark. And that is God's resting place. As where God set forth that His name would be forever. Now at that time, they could not enter in behind that first veil, that second veil there. They could not enter in behind that thing without blood. Oh, but we know the story. We know the rest of the story. Some of you get that, and some of you, the younger ones, you ought to look into it. Amen. Now, the only reason I know that is because I used to hear it on the radio station out of counter sport, so Paul Harvey. Oh, no, but we know when Christ died, he cried, it is finished. And there was that great earthquake. The heavens were rent, and that veil was rent. Oh, and we go to Psalm 18 and we see his father come down. Hallelujah. You see that blood sprinkled in heaven, offered before the father, sprinkled on that veil seven times. That veil in heaven is rent. That veil on earth is rent. Glory. But God had set forth within Solomon, put forth in him to prepare a habitation for him, a place where he could dwell with men on earth. A place where he said, I will meet with thee there. I'll speak to thee from that place. Whenever I call you to assemble, you assemble at the door of the tabernacle, and you assemble at the door of the temple, and I will speak to thee from there. And both times, When Moses dedicates that tabernacle, and he sets forth all of those things, the glory of God filled that tabernacle so much so that the priests could not enter in. And when Solomon prays and all of these things are set forth and all of this, look at chapter five, verse 13, it came to pass as the trumpets and singers were one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised, the Lord sang, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. God was pleased with that habitation that had been prepared for him, and he put his stamp of approval on it by letting his glory come down. Now if you're astute, you see where I'm going with all this. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verse 19. What? I love that. He's almost dumbfounded. He's just gotten done telling them, he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. And he says, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not your own. So what do we see? Ah, we see Moses willing within himself, I will prepare a habitation for the Lord. And we see David setting forth that there would be a place where God could reside, and that he could set this thing forth. And when we see Solomon accomplishing this deed, and we see God put his stamp of approval on both of those things, and his glory filling that temple. And then we see Paul, what? Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? And he's put his stamp of approval on that thing, and he's filled you with his glory. What? How could you not know that God Almighty has filled you with glory? Except you'd be reprobates. You say, well, I don't always feel it. I don't feel His glory. You should. You should. Those priests that couldn't enter that tabernacle because of the glory, do you think they felt the presence of God that day? Those priests that were there at the temple They could not enter in to perform their ministration because of the cloud, because of the glory of God that had filled that thing. Do you think they felt the presence of God that day? And we have one better, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We have something that goes far beyond what these frail human carnal eyes can see. We have the faith of Jesus Christ. The glory of God residing within us. You realize that? We have something that even those apostles didn't have as they walked with Jesus. We have the entire Godhead within us. And you don't feel that? And I ask, is He even there then? Let's go to 1 Corinthians 3. Just a couple pages. Back, 1 Corinthians 3, look at verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Now, How ought you to be taking care of that temple? How ought you to be caring for that thing? You see, so much effort put into the physical buildings. So much money poured into buildings. So much money put into stained glass, and archworks, and flying buttresses, and all of the accoutrements of religion in these grand buildings. So much money and so much effort and time in maintaining this property. This isn't the temple of God. You are. You're going to cut your life short because your diet is terrible? So God is robbed of 30 years of glorying in you as you walk this earth? Keep this in mind as we go into Thanksgiving season. That oughta hurt. And you can be mad at me if you want. I don't care. It's what God said. What did God say there? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Now I know that that is not which goes into the body that defileth the body. It's what cometh out of that body. But how important is it that you walk this earth in holiness? Do you think maybe if you take care of yourself a little bit, you get another five or maybe seven years out of your life? Do you think maybe there could be a couple people that you might run into and you'd be able to say, hey, let me tell you what God did for me. You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your spirit and in your body, which are God's. So let's just keep that in mind as we're going into our feasting days, the high holy days of the Christian faith. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. Very much looking forward to that corned beef, cabbage, and carrots, and potatoes. Glory. Well, that one landed about like a lead balloon. I don't know, maybe I just hit a rock there. Maybe I ought to plow a little deeper. We get pretty riled up when people smoke, don't we? People drink alcohol. We say, oh, it's destroying their bodies. What about your diet? If you're destroying your health with cigarettes, What's the difference between that and eating things that you know you shouldn't? What's the difference? Killing yourself either way. Let that be a help to you. It's what it's meant to be. If nothing more, let it be motivation that you could take care of the temple of God. If would be that God could give you a couple more years because of it. Now, let's move on. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 4. Oh, 2 Corinthians 4, 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Now see, here's the difference. The world looks at your health and says, that is the determining factor of how long you live. As long as you eat right, as long as you exercise, as long as you keep your mental health proper and everything, you'll live a good long life. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Why? That thy days may be long on the earth wherein thou dwellest. First place you gotta start is honoring your parents. Okay? Part of that is eating what they put in front of you. Lentils, buddy. Amen. One do's learn to love it. Listen, they carry a lot of flavor, they really do. It's a struggle, I'm telling you. But we have less treasure in earthen vessels. Our earthen vessel that God has given us is this flesh. Yes, we ought to take care of it. But it says in the Psalms, we read a couple of verses of it this morning, where Jesus says that God is the health of his countenance. If you want to have a healthy countenance, you gotta walk with God. Okay? Part of walking with God is not giving yourself over to every single carnal appetite that you have. You know, the feasting that you do on a regular basis is not liberty in the Lord. It's carnal. You're incontinent. You have no control. If it's there in front of you, you're going to eat it. If it's there in front of you, you're going to drink it. If it's there in the cooler, you're going to buy it. Because it's what you want. Now you say, well, I have liberty in the Lord. That's fine. But check and make sure that you're not using that liberty for lasciviousness, covetousness, and that it's just not your carnal mind driving you and you're excusing away your religious liberty in those things. You see, carnal things never satisfy. Food is a carnal need. You need food. You have to have food or you will die. God has prepared those things for you. Same thing with water. All of those things, those are carnal needs. But I took a drink of water when I started and my throat tells me I need it again. That's a carnal need right now. And if I am carnally minded, what does the Bible say about that? To be carnally minded is death. So if you're carnally minded, and you die before you were supposed to, is that bringing glory to God? Does that make a little bit more sense now? Maybe we ought to watch what we eat, what we put in our bodies, how we take care of ourselves. It's a good Thanksgiving message, folks. Come on, I could preach this to Weight Watchers. I'd be getting hallelujahs and amens and they'd be running laps. It's just some practical application of the Word of God. We say we believe it, let's live like we believe it. Let's show a little temperance, okay? Temperance isn't self-control, it's knowing how much to have of something. That cake was tempered with oil. Why? It was the right amount of oil in that thing to make that thing bind together. Too much, it would be too wet and goopy. Not enough, it would crumble all to pieces and be too dry. It was tempered. When steel is tempered, it's taken to the right exact amount of heat in order to harden it to the right amount. And there's a master steel worker that knows exactly how hot to heat that thing, the blacksmith. In the same way, God teaches you temperance. It's part of that fruit of the spirit. And he teaches you how much you ought to eat, how much you ought to drink, how much of this thing you ought to have, and how much of that thing you ought to have. Now, I have come to realize, and I know with an absolute assurance beyond almost everything else, I know the right amount of alcohol for me to have is zero. I know the right amount of pieces of pie is one. That's not what I want, but that's the right amount. God has to teach you that. My diet's different than yours. Nick can't eat like I do. If he does, he's gonna be in agonizing pain. I think of the Maury's, they were here during a missions conference. The Maury hurt, because he ate differently than they normally do. It's the same way spiritually with each and every individual. You are the temple of the Holy Ghost. God has prepared for himself in habitation in your body. He saw that before the world began. He knew exactly what he wanted to do to prepare that thing so he could abide within it. He's perfectly made that body on the inside clean, spiritually, when you're born again. There's not a bit of you spiritually that needs to be changed, tweaked, or adapted for you to personally walk spiritually into that kingdom of God. It's all right there ready. If he were to come tonight and establish that kingdom and that thousand year reign starts right now, there's not a bit of you who are born again on the inward parts that needs to change a bit. The problem is, this flesh, bringing your members into subjection. And that's where it gets hard. Really, I just want to help some of you. I want to help everybody, all right? But there's some in here that have a hard time with these things. And I'm just trying to show you, your body is the temple of God. If you've been born again, he has given you everything you need on the inward parts to walk holy spiritually and to walk not in carnality. He can teach you temperance of what you should eat and what you shouldn't eat. And he can make it, just like you can not look at pornography, you can not eat that fourth cookie. Or the fifth. Or the other half that my wife gives me. It's her tithe, she always gives me just a little bit. She says it's her tithe to me. I appreciate those things. No, but I do know there's some of you in here that have a hard time with this. And I am, as much as I'm cracking up a little bit tonight, it might be the sickness, it might be the cold that I've got, I don't know. But no, seriously, I wanna help you. If your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost, y'all take care of that thing. Not for health's sake, but for the honoring of God with that thing. Showing temperance. Showing that you're not following after your carnal desires. Amen? Amen. The great thing is, that was not even remotely part of the notes. That's God for ya. Now, let's look at something that is part of the notes. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. Let's go to Romans chapter 8. Got a couple more places I want to look at and then we'll be done. Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. Now what is living after the flesh? Oh, you know, going after our wicked things that we want to do and looking at things we ought not to and drinking and partying. No, it's anything that is driven by the flesh. It's that carnal mind which is enmity against God. You realize your carnal mind is still the enemy of God? That's going to come into play here in just a little bit. Look at this, for if you live after the flesh, ye shall die. Now how important is it? God has given you a spiritual commandment to take care of your flesh and to not follow after those carnal desires. Are we okay with that? Let's keep going. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. In relation to what we're talking about here, that would be the Jewish dietary restrictions and the religious restrictions and all of those things that they had to do with their body and what they could put in their body, what they couldn't put in their body. You've got liberty in the Lord to do those things. As soon as I start telling you what to eat and what not to eat, as soon as I start telling you those individual things, it becomes a cult. It's not what this is. It's the church of the living God. This is the word of God for your benefit, for your profit. So help you if you can grab hold of these things. Whereby we have received the adoption, spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Now we talked about that temple. We talked about that tabernacle being filled with the glory of God. And we talked about the Holy Ghost of God living within us. And it's almost like he's just this light little fluffy thing that comes along and helps us and comforts us when we need him. But no, it's the very glory of God. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ is the brightness of the glory of God. Do you know the brightness that those priests saw, so great and brilliant that they couldn't enter in? Do you know who that was? According to Hebrews 1, verse 3, it was Jesus, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. That's Jesus. They saw Jesus in that glorious cloud. And if Christ is in you, and that's the hope of glory, and he says here that there is a glory which shall be revealed in us, you know what's gonna happen when you're raptured up, when you're caught up? God's gonna take you, unzip you, and turn you inside out. And that glory that's inside is gonna shine outside, and you're gonna look just like he did when he was standing on that Mount of Transfiguration. When we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Glory. Well, Colossians 127 talks about that, about Christ in you, the hope of glory. Talking about that mystery which was hid from the ages past. It would be Christ in the Gentiles, the hope of glory. Let's go to Psalm 110, because I want to point this thing out. And we're gonna close. Psalm 110. First there was a tabernacle, then there was a temple, both habitations of God. Then your body is called the temple, the habitation of God. Now Psalm 110, verse one says this, a Psalm of David. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Now the Lord is speaking to the Lord, Jesus Christ, and he's saying, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Who is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever making intercession for us? Jesus. So that's the person that's being addressed here. We know that from what Paul said and what Peter said all throughout the New Testament. We see it probably at least half a dozen times. Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Now, I know for a fact that I was the enemy of God, because my carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject under the law of God, neither indeed can be. My heart was the enemy of God. I was the sworn enemy of God, and that was my choice. I chose to rebel against the God of heaven. I made myself his enemy. By the way, all of your enemies that you have in life, you have made those enemies yourself. you have all those people that you just cannot get along with and boy they're just your number one worst enemy why do they have best friends and people that love them but they can't love you because you made them your enemy Listen, God grabbed a hold of my heart on that. I was listening to some preaching. Somebody said that, and I think it was even Pastor Askwith mentioned that in the preaching one time. I was over behind the shed over here doing some cleaning up, and maybe a little yard work. I can't remember what I was doing, but he said that, and my goodness, God put a person right in my mind and said, you're the one that made him your enemy. And bitterness was gone, just like that. And here I thought I had already forgiven the guy. That root of bitterness is sneaky. That's deep. It goes way deep. Ah, but the foolishness of preaching stirs up the heart, doesn't it? Gets those secrets out. Well, I was the enemy of God. The Father promised him, he said, sit down at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. So the Father is gonna make the enemies of God, of Jesus Christ, his footstool. Now what is the footstool? Now we might think of, you know, a soldier putting his foot on the neck of that other enemy soldier. You might think of it like that. There's a slight application there. There is coming a day when Jesus Christ is going to tread those things out. He's going to destroy the nations. He's going to tread out the wine press. The blood is going to be upon his skirts. Oh yes, there's coming a day where the blood is going to flow up to the bridle of a horse. Let's look at this just a little bit deeper. Let's go to Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66, last chapter in Isaiah, almost a perfect correlation with the book of Revelation, which is the 66th book in the King James Bible. Isaiah 66 in verse one. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? Now, as it continues on, it says, for all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. So he talks about the heaven being his throne and the earth being his footstool. But there's something else that is spoken of in the Bible as being a footstool. Now, I am an earthen vessel. There's a correlation there. This earthen vessel made his enemies his footstool. But let's go to 1 Chronicles 28. First Chronicles 28. Look at verse 1. This is David recalling what he's done for the preparation of the temple. And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and the captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance in possession of the king, and of his sons with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up upon his feet and said, hear me my brethren and my people. As for me, I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God. Now what did David have in his heart to build? The temple. So the temple of God is his footstool. Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. God has made his sworn enemy his temple. And I just wanted to share that, that God has done that for me. He's made his enemy his footstool. He's prepared a place for his habitation within this man, within this earthen vessel. The excellency of the power might be of God and not of man. That's all I got for us tonight, amen. Theron, you got any song to close with? Okay, why don't we do that?