This sermon delves into the importance of presenting our bodies as a holy dwelling place for God, drawing parallels between the Old Testament tabernacle and the New Testament call to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Emphasizing the need for holiness and purity in our lives, it highlights the significance of God dwelling in a holy place and the consequences of neglecting holiness. The message stresses the need to learn from the mistakes of Israel and other churches to avoid spiritual decline and maintain God's presence in our midst.

Let's turn to Exodus and chapter 25. Here we see God expressing His desire to the children of Israel. We know that everything in the Old Testament was a picture of what was going to be fulfilled and full in the New Testament. So it's good to study the Old Testament because we see shadows there of what is fulfilled in the New Testament. Some of those things we are very familiar with. Like the lamb that was slain is a picture of Christ dying on the cross. And going into the Red Sea is a picture of water baptism. And the pillar of cloud coming down is a picture of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Some of those things we are very familiar with. But what about this? This tabernacle which God told them to build? There is a very detailed description God gave to Moses how to build it. But the most important was the purpose behind it. It's not enough just to build the tabernacle according to the pattern God gave. God said this is my holy dwelling place. And that is why that pillar of fire rested on it saying that God is dwelling here. And the most important thing in that tabernacle was the pillar of fire. When Israel backslid the pillar of fire went away. That is afterwards when the temple was built. The temple was built also according to God's pattern. And when it was dedicated a fire came from heaven. And the glory of the Lord rested on that temple. But when the children of Israel backslid, slowly that glory departed. That is finally God sent all the children of Israel to Babylon. So in the Old Testament God sending Israel to Babylon was a punishment. You read about that in the last chapters of 2 Chronicles. And in the next book after that Ezra you see the people coming out of Babylon coming back to Jerusalem. So you need to understand why did God send his people to Babylon. Because they did not keep the temple as a holy dwelling place for God. It was a very beautiful temple. But the glory had gone. The glory had gone away. So in the New Testament we read that Babylon, Revelation 17 is a picture of a type of church. A false church. And in Revelation Jerusalem is a picture of the true church. So this movement from Israel going to Babylon is a lesson for us also. How does a false church start? Is there a possibility that CFC also can become Babylon after sometime? If it has happened to so many other good churches why can't it happen to us? All those churches which have today become Babylon all started with the same good desire that we have. All those churches which have today become Babylon all started with the same good desire that we have. So it is good to learn why God sent the Israelites to Babylon. Then we can learn how to avoid becoming Babylon ourselves. Most people learn from their own mistakes. A foolish person does not learn even from his own mistakes. But a wise man, he learns without making a mistake. How is that? He learns from the mistakes of other people. There are three types of people. A foolish man who does not learn from his own mistakes. A normal person who learns from his own mistakes. And a wise man who learns without making a mistake because he learns from other people's mistakes. So we can learn from Israel's mistakes. We can learn from the mistakes of the five churches in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. Elders can learn from those elders in chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation. For so many years I have told elders read Revelation chapter 2 and 3. You can have a name that you are alive but be dead. You can think I have need of nothing but God may say you are wretched and miserable. So if we don't learn from the mistakes of others we will do it ourselves. I try my best to learn from the Bible from the mistakes of all the people there. Because in my younger days I learn from my own mistakes. As I grow older I don't want to make mistakes now. So I want to learn from other people's mistakes. From Israel, from the Christians in Corinth or Galatia or all these places. All the elders in Laodicea or Sardis I want to learn from them. I say Lord I am also an elder I can end up like that. So it's a wonderful thing that God has given us his word so that we can learn from the mistakes of others. So why did God send Israel out to Babylon? Because they did not take Exodus 25 verse 8 seriously. And when you don't take that seriously in your life or your family or your church Babylon can come to your life too. So God's dwelling place, the most important thing is it must be a holy place. It doesn't have to be many people but it must be a holy people. It doesn't have to be a large church but it must be a holy church. God's not looking to see what size of house you have built for yourself. But he wants to see if your house is a holy place where he can live. And what did it say here? Let them build a holy place for me to dwell. So where a church becomes more interested in the gifts of the spirit and in prosperity teaching it looses out on holiness. And then when holiness goes away God goes away. See can a person have the gifts God has given him, gifts of the spirit, and when God has departed from him? Yes. And the number one example is the devil. The devil has got so many supernatural powers but he doesn't have the anointing. He had it once, you read in Ezekiel 28, he was the anointed cherub. Today he has gifts but no anointing. When you listen to a preacher, can you make out whether he has got gifts plus anointing or only gifts and no anointing? If you can't discern that the devil himself will deceive you. Where a person has the anointing of the spirit today there will be a grace of Jesus Christ upon his life. There will be the humility and the lowliness and the purity of Christ. If those things are not there in a preacher he has only got gifts. I am not interested in listening to him. I don't want even to get healing of my sickness from the hands of such a man. Because when he lays hands on me he may not only heal me, he may give me some of his spirit also. I don't want it. I would rather keep my sickness and not have that man's spirit. Sickness cannot hinder me from doing God's work. But a wrong spirit will ruin me. I don't allow anybody to lay hands on my head. I remember once when I was praying somebody came to my house some visitor he had a very high thought about himself he was older than me he said let's pray he was a foreigner so while we were praying he laid his hands on my head I took his hand and pulled it away you must do that don't let anybody lay hands on your head unless you have 100% confidence that he has got the right spirit the spirit of Christ I was not bothered what he thought about me I pulled off his hand he was offended I am willing to offend all the people in the world we have to look before God's face God wants us to be a holy people when you look into God's heart what do you see there? even today let my people make a holy place for me to live among them if your home is not a holy place God cannot dwell there you can say you have left all those other dead churches because they have got all wrong teachings we can glory in so many things in our church we don't have paid pastors none of our elders take any money from the church we don't take any tithes from people we preach against it we teach people to give secretly joyfully to the Lord many things like that good things we teach discipleship but with all those things if we don't have holiness in our midst if we don't have love in our midst God is not in our church we can still have our meeting we can still have a long preaching God is not there can you discern in a message whether God was in that message or not I'll tell you if we read in 1 Corinthians 14 1 Corinthians 14 we read like this that in a church it says in verse 23 when the whole church is assembled together we read in verse 23 we read that many are starting to preach the gospel an unbeliever comes in the one who doesn't have the gift the one who doesn't have faith in the Holy Spirit he comes in he is not supporting the church he may be against the church but he comes in and he is convicted the Holy Spirit convicts him in his heart and the secret wrong attitudes he's got in his heart verse 25 are disclosed not disclosed to all the others God doesn't humiliate us before other people he shows it to him himself the Holy Spirit says this is what is in your heart and if he is honest he will say God is here that is the mark of God speaking through a person if you don't find conviction in your heart when the word of God is spoken then God is not there a lot of sermons are so boring because God is not with the person who is speaking because first of all the person is not a humble person he is not seeking God in his life and that can happen to many of our elders but when you are convicted in your heart you can react in two ways one is you fall on your face and say this is God and repent and say God is here the other is let me give you one more example Acts of the Apostles chapter 7 there was a man called Stephen and he was filled with the Holy Spirit and the whole chapter he gave a big message a really spiritual message we read in verse 55 that he was full of the Holy Spirit but when the people heard his message verse 54 they were cut to the quick that means they were convicted in their heart but they did not fall on their face and say God is here they got angry with the preacher and we read in verse 58 to 60 they stoned him and killed him so it does not mean that everybody who is convicted will acknowledge God they will all be convicted if God is there even in our midst God can speak in a conference so powerfully that he convicts you you may either bow down before God and say Lord that is true of my life I want to repent you have spoken to me or you can justify yourself and say no no no there is a reason why it is like this and that then you will be like these chief priests in Acts chapter 7 but one thing is sure if God is in a meeting everybody will be convicted maybe only 10% will respond and say God is here and submit to him 90% may resist it but God will speak so the holiness of God is the most important thing in our church because as I said when you look into the heart of God what do you see? let them build a holy place for me to dwell with them and I want to say my brothers and sisters we have to repent of a lot of things in our churches we have to repent of a lot of things in our relationships with one another God is not seeing holiness as he wants to in our churches and then what does he do? he goes away that is what he did with Israel when he saw something wrong there he slowly went away does he see something in your house which he doesn't like? you can't call it sin maybe you can justify yourself and say that's not sin yeah it's not sin but it is not something that God likes don't just say it's not sin no it's alright if I have it in my house yeah that particular movie there was not sin in that cinema but that's not enough that's a low standard was it something that God approved of? that television thing you are watching no there is no sin there ok I agree is it something that God says it's not sin but it's not something I like and he turns away so let me give you an example from the old testament I would like to show you an example chapter 23 after God brought the Israelites out of Egypt not only did he teach them holiness but he also taught them cleanliness in the book of Leviticus so many times about washing your clothes they are not teaching about washing the clothes in the book of Leviticus because they did not know these things cleanliness now here is one of those laws it says in verse 12 you shall have a place outside the camp and go out there that means when you want to go to the toilet don't have it inside the camp because it must not be where people are living that's why in the olden days the toilets in our olden houses were always outside but now because the standards of hygiene are much better we have flush tanks and all that we can have it inside the house but even that it is all flushed out outside the house the principle is here every time you go to the toilet there you must carry verse 13 a spade with you whoever you are man, woman, child you must carry a spade with you and when you sit there after you are finished you must dig and cover up your excrement simple things like this God has to teach them we say we understand that now what is the reason now listen to the reason it is not just hygiene more than that verse 14 because the Lord your God is walking in the midst of your camp to defeat your enemies before you and your camp must be holy your olden house must be holy must be clean he must not see anything indecent among you if he sees you like that he will leave you read that verse slowly now you say when you go to the toilet is that a sin there is no sin there but that is not a decent thing he says you should not see anything indecent he is not talking about sin some things in our house we can say for sure this is not a sin but would you let it be there if Jesus was living in your house physically be careful you have to ask yourself if Jesus was physically living in my house will I watch that TV program will I read that magazine will I have that calendar picture will I hang on the wall will I talk like this to my wife you must say there is nothing sinful in what I said to my wife I know it is just like when you go out there to the toilet it is not sin but it is a little indecent and the Lord says I don't want to see that and the Lord says I don't want to hear you talk to your wife or husband like that otherwise the Lord your God will turn away from you and he says then you won't be able to defeat your enemies and you say Lord does defeating my enemies depend on what I do in the toilet over there yeah you read that verse that the Lord should not see anything indecent among you now when it comes to the matter of toilet we all know how to pour water and flush it out we don't leave it there all of us know how to do that in our houses even we teach our children after they go to the toilet pour some water you don't even accumulate it for the day immediately pour the water do you deal like that with something which you know is wrong in your house supposing you spoke a wrong word to your husband and wife angry word rude word or a lie or a rebellion or a rebellious word against your parents from today onwards should I tell you how you should look at them as if you are going to wash it what are you going to do about it when are you going to pour the water are you going to wait till tomorrow are you going to wait till one week are you going to ask for forgiveness after one week that is like going to the toilet and pouring the water after one week we don't do that with these physical things why are we not so sensitive in our spirit you look into the heart of God he says let them make a holy place for me in their midst your heart must always be holy this is the dwelling place of God see 1 Corinthians chapter 3 in the old testament they never had the heart as a dwelling place for God in the old testament the dwelling place of God was in Jerusalem only one place on the whole earth if you want to meet with God you have to go to Jerusalem that was the old testament you don't have to go to Jerusalem today because Jerusalem has come inside our heart 1 Corinthians 6 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19 your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit where is the temple of the Holy Spirit today the body that is why i say don't do things that will harm this body when i see a man smoking a cigarette or drinking i say will you drink inside a church building will you smoke inside a church building inside no no no i won't do that will you break the windows of some church building no no because that is God's house i say no that is not God's house your body is God's house so you can't smoke inside here you can't get drunk inside here this is God's house that is not God's house will you commit adultery inside a church building no no no you do it somewhere else will you watch this internet pornography inside a church building i say oh that is God's house we can't do dirty things there i say that church is not God's house this body is God's house you cannot commit adultery here you cannot watch pornography here you must see when God says let them make a holy place for me to live first of all it is my body in the old testament when God said let them make a tabernacle for me Exodus you read all the people brought all the gold and everything and said here it is they gave everything that was the earnings of many years see they were working as slaves and for 400 years they worked as slaves and they never got any payment for 400 years and so you know what God said to them when they were leaving Egypt Exodus chapter 12 verse 35 this is something that they did according to the word of Moses which means according to the word of God according to the word of God they went to the Egyptians and they said give me silver, gold, clothing God gave them favor and the Egyptians gave them all their silver, gold and clothing you say is it right to go and ask the Egyptians for all that that is like asking is it right for you to go to your office and collect your salary on the first of the month is there anything wrong in that the Egyptians owed them salary for 430 years God said go and collect your salary for 430 years collect all their gold and silver and all their wealthy clothing they were not begging when you go and collect your salary you are not begging you are just getting your due but when they got their salary God said now use this to build a house for me that is how they had all their silver and gold and clothing I mean cloth and all to build the tavern so otherwise they wouldn't have had it in the wilderness they were all slaves so they gave it to God now today God is not primary asking for your gold or silver or clothes Romans 12.1 he says see that is unique in our church some people say when there are so many churches why do you have another church I can give you many reasons for that but one reason is this because all the churches are asking for your money or your membership so we need a church that says no money no membership we want you to give your body to Jesus Christ is there a church teaching that no so then we have to start another church that teaches the word of God Romans 12.1 in view of all the mercies of God present your bodies a living sacrifice to God so in the old testament they said see God has been so good to you delivering you from Egypt he has given you the salary which belonged to your fathers forefathers for 400 years now you got it from the Egyptians imagine supposing you and your father grandfather great grandfather were all working in an office and never got salary for 400 years and now suddenly you get all that salary what a rich man you will become these Israelites came like that what to do with all this gold the Lord said build a house for me God has been merciful to you and it says they gave so much we see how much they gave to God enough enough now today the new testament says in view of all of God's mercies to you he brought you out of Egypt he forgave you all the sins you committed in your life not only that here is the best part of it the sins you committed in your life God has hidden so that nobody in your church knows about it aren't you thankful that nobody in your church knows all the evil things you did in your younger days how good God is that he says I will not tell anybody what all you did in your past even in eternity it will not come out it has been blotted out in the blood of Christ in all eternity nobody will ever know whatever evil you did in your life you don't have to be afraid that in eternity something you did when you were 20 years old will get revealed there the blood of Christ is very powerful God has been so good to you what should you do now what does God want he doesn't want your money to give money to God is like giving 2 rupees to one of the richest men in the world is like giving 2 rupees to one of the richest men in the world if there is a rich businessman in India you give him 2 rupees as a gift if you give 2 rupees to a beggar he will take it but to give 2 rupees to a millionaire businessman what are you giving me this for he will ask you what are you giving me this for let me tell you something God doesn't need your money we put money in the offering box not for God we have to cover the cost we have to rent this hall we have to pay for the food that is for us only or you meet in a church building you have to pay the rent that is for us only or you collect the money and build a meeting hall for whom for us only see you can transfer money from India to other countries but you can't transfer it to heaven because they don't need your money but you can't transfer it to heaven because they don't need your money so don't be fooled by these pastors you give them money it goes into their pocket and they build their house not even your meeting hall the new testament says what God wants is what he doesn't have in heaven your body that is what he wants so the new testament says if God has done so much for you give your body to him see that is the difference between old testament offering and new testament offering it is called a sacrifice here in the old testament people would come here is my bullock here is my sheep here is my goat I give it to you I am giving you an offering here is all the barley or grain that I got in my field but now God says I don't want any bullocks or sheep or grain what will I do with that what will I do with that this is all a picture of how Jesus gave his body what did Jesus give we are not following Moses we are following Jesus when did Jesus bring a bullock and say father here is a bullock never did he bring a sheep did he bring a sheep did he bring a tithe father here is my money did he bring anything like that what did Jesus bring now you see Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews is a great book that shows the difference between old testament and new testament so he is comparing the law with this new covenant he says in chapter 10 verse 1 the law was only a shadow only a shadow of the good things to come but not the very form so it's like today we would say instead of shadow we would say photograph now it's something like this the difference between old testament and new testament supposing I tell the children ok we are going to distribute a lot of sweets today chocolate and when they come I give them each one little picture of one chocolate photograph which child will be happy with photograph of chocolate that is old testament but it is exactly correct photo of the chocolate Cadbury it's written Cadbury on it but the real chocolate is different that is the difference between old covenant and new covenant so in the old covenant they only had a photograph in the new covenant we have the real chocolate the real thing and so now he says in those days there was the sacrifices every year there was a reminder of sin but now what is when Jesus comes into the world verse 5 what does he say listen to this father you do not desire any sacrifice or offering but you have given me a body you don't take any delight verse 6 in sacrifice for sin or burnt offering but because you have given me a body verse 7 in this body I have come to do your will oh God in this body I will do everything that is written in the bible about me verse 7 and again it is repeated oh father verse 8 sacrifice and burnt offering you don't desire you don't have any pleasure in them but I come to do your will in my body and like that verse 9 he takes away the first covenant and establishes the second covenant and by this will verse 10 we are also sanctified the way he offered his body not tithes and offerings and bulls and goats but his body we also come to God and say Lord you don't desire offerings you are not a pastor you you are God pastors want offerings you want a body Lord I come to give my body Lord I come to give my body that's what we have taught in this church for 34 years that's why we needed to start a new church that would preach the truth of God a new covenant in a new covenant church money is not the important thing people giving their bodies to God is the important thing because we are following Jesus who said Father you don't desire offerings but you gave me a body when I came out of Mary's womb you gave me a body and from the very first moment I decided to do your will in my body verse 7 and everything written in the bible about me I want to do in this body what does it mean to follow Jesus why does it say that the glory of God was seen in Jesus we can say the pillar of fire was upon Jesus all the time he had the anointing of the spirit all the time why because his body was the temple of the Holy Spirit there was not only no sin there like we read in Deuteronomy 23 there was nothing indecent that the father would turn away so all the time the fire was there we follow him we say Lord now I give my body I want the fire to be upon me all the time you know many Pentecostal people say and charismatic also I am not against them they are God's people I love them there are many good people there but I disagree with some of their teachings and emphasis that's all so please remember I am not talking about the people there I am talking about the teaching they teach the emphasis they all spoke in tongues in Acts 2.4 I say there is something else also written there there was a fire on top of their heads on all 120 of them I say why don't you emphasize that that they had a tongue of fire a tongue which was under the control of the Holy Spirit a tongue that had no impurity in it a tongue that did not speak evil a tongue that did not tell lies a tongue that never got angry a tongue that never spoke anything rude but a tongue controlled by the fire of love I say that is the tongue I emphasize yeah speaking in tongues is an extra thing but this tongue of fire is what I want to speak about and that comes when we present our tongue to God what does it mean to present our body to God that means I say Lord take my tongue set it on fire with the Holy Spirit and I don't want ever to use this tongue for myself take my eyes make my eyes like the eyes of Jesus like a flame of fire you know it says in Revelation his eyes were like a flame of fire do you want your eyes to be like that I want it to be like that that all sin in my eyes is burnt up my eyes are holy eyes there is no impurity there tongue of fire, eyes of fire when you present your body you won't get it by giving money no Simon tried to give money that magician and Peter said you are cursed trying to give money to God don't try to give me money Peter said you think God will bless you because you give me money I am a servant of God he told him in Acts 8 your money perish with you I wish there were more pastors like Peter I wish your money should perish with you Acts 8 verse 20 what did the apostles teach present your body give your body because your body has to be the temple of the Holy Spirit so lets look into the heart of God supposing we were to look into God's heart right now say Lord you have so many of your people here today God so many of them are really born again they have given their heart to you they have asked you to forgive their sins they believe in Jesus Christ death and resurrection Father what do you want from your people today God will say I don't want their offerings I want their body tell them to give me their eyes tell them to give me their tongues and let them make a holy dwelling place for me to live and I don't want to see anything indecent there let me give you one example of indecent then I will close one example here is something indecent Luke 16 you know like we said in Deuteronomy 23 the Lord says I don't want to see that indecent thing so cover it up with a spade so here is an indecent thing found with many believers in the Deuteronomy 23 that is called an abomination that is an abomination God doesn't want to see it here you see the same word abomination Luke 16 Luke 16 Jesus turned to the Pharisees and said you are those who justify yourself before men God sees your heart and that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God it's an abomination what is this indecent thing God is seeing among many believers which is not covered over this trying to justify myself brother brother why can't you get along with that other brother this is the reason 100% the fault is with him I am quite a holy man brother why can't you get along with your wife why are you always fighting she is like this she is like this but I am a good husband my wife is like this but I am a good husband you go to the wife the same wife why can't you get along with your husband he is like this but I am a very good woman my husband is like this I am a holy woman these are all like toilets that have not been flushed shall I give you one recommendation take 100 buckets of water today pour it and flush it all out what a lot you have accumulated in your toilet for so many years all this justification is all like going to the toilet in God's eyes you say it is not sin brother I have to prove my point you say you are going to prove your point but in God's eyes he sees the heart present your body to God and say Lord I come to do your will that is the only offering he wants he doesn't want your justification or your tithe let's pray heavenly father in Jesus name help us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit so that our body can be a holy dwelling place for you I pray in Jesus name Amen Music Music Music Music Music Music