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Luke 6: 46

46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?

NLT

46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?

The Message

46-47 “Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.

The following words were spoken at the dedication of Solomon’s temple:

2 Chronicles 7: 14 – 16

14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”

Jesus – the one who is greater than Solomon – said “I will build my church” but he wasn’t talking about a physical building.

1 Corinthians 6: 19 – 20

19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

2 Corinthians 6: 16 – 18

16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Ephesians 2: 19 – 22

19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

It is interesting that the LORD began his promise to Solomon with the two-letter, one-syllable word, ”If”.  It is interesting because there are people who don’t think the word “if” is part of God’s vocabulary.  In their reasoning God is sovereign and so surely God doesn’t have to use words like “if” – surely God can do what he wants. And of course he absolutely can, but God in his sovereignty sovereignly decided that in his dealings with man he would give man personal responsibility, and so he has limited himself in his dealings with man and he doesn’t do anything until man does something first. He does say something, but He doesn’t do anything.

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