God’s House

If God’s people would, please
take your Bible and turn back to Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. If, like so many, you were either
providentially hindered by sickness last Lord’s Day, or you were
providentially hindered by travel last Lord’s Day, or you were
providentially hindered by the snowstorm last Lord’s Day, don’t
panic. in thinking that maybe you thought
that I would hold off in preaching Ephesians 1. We did record it,
but we pressed on, and you can find Ephesians 1, 7, and 8 there
on Sermon Audio, and I would encourage, several people said
that it was among my best, which that was a humbling encouragement. We come, though, according to
my plan. We did an overview of the entire
book of Ephesians two weeks ago. Last week, as I planned, we selected
just a portion of chapter 1, and we chose verses 7 and 8,
that we have redemption in Christ’s blood, forgiveness of our sins.
What an encouraging message that was to us. And then we come into
chapter 2 and in the weeks to come 3, 4, 5, and 6. But today
we come into chapter 2 and I want to take you to it in its entirety
and then I’ll zero in and I’ll unfold where we’re going to land
here this morning. Ephesians chapter 2. where Paul writes to his beloved
friends in this region. Not just a city, not just one
church, but really a region of churches where Paul had labored
for many years. And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them, we all too formerly lived in the lust of our flesh,
indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being
rich in mercy, Because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And raised us up with Him, and
seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In order that in the ages to
come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness
towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And that, not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works that
no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that formerly
you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision
by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh
by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate
from Christ. excluded from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus,
you who were formerly were far off, have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who
made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the
dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is
the law of commandments contained in ordinances. That in himself
he might make the two into one new man thus establishing peace. and might reconcile them both
in one body to God through the cross by having put to death
the enmity. And he came and preached peace
to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the
Father. So then, you are no longer strangers
and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together
is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also
are being built together into a dwelling of God. in the Spirit. Now, I want to take you back
to chapter 1. Don’t panic. I’m not going to read the entirety
of chapter 1 again. I just want to set the tone.
What Paul is doing here is he glides almost seamlessly into
chapter 2. Back, if you would, to chapter
1, verse 18. In chapter 1 verse 18, Paul is
telling the Ephesian believers what it is he was praying for
on their behalf. He prayed that their eyes would
be opened. He prayed that they would have
a greater understanding of who God is, specifically, glance
at the passage, that they would know what is the hope of his
calling. That they would know, not Hope
as in wishful thinking as we so often think of it, but what
is the settled confidence in the soul of everyone who places
their faith in Jesus Christ? What is the hope of his calling?
And that calling being God calling believers to himself. He wanted
his Ephesian believers to know the hope of his calling. He also
wanted them to know the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and that sounds to us rather crass. We tend to think of the inheritance
as being a big pile of money that we’re going to get when
we get to heaven, or the biggest room in the mansion, or a fancy
car once we get to heaven to drive on the streets of gold.
I believe that the inheritance there is none other than Christ.
And the riches there are spiritual riches that are lavished upon
us. But Paul wanted his Ephesian
believers to know what waits ahead. But there was a third
thing. Not only the hope of his calling
and the riches of his glory of his inheritance in the saints,
but what is the surpassing greatness of his power? And now this frames
really this desire for Paul to know how powerful Almighty God
is. It frames really the entire rest
of chapter one. And he tells them four things,
four things that God did in the demonstration of his power. Look
at verse 20. He raised him from the dead. The same power that was exercised
at creation went back into service in the raising of Christ from
the dead. But God wasn’t finished. Once
He had raised Christ from the dead, He seated Him. God had
the prerogative and the power to do so. He seated Christ at
His right hand as a co-ruler of all His kingdom. Look at the
end of verse 20, he seated him as right hand in the heavenly
places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion
and every name that is named not only in this age but also
in the one that is to come. It’s Jesus Christ who is reigning
at the right hand of God. No wonder Paul concludes there
when he says he put all things in subjection under his feet. Jesus Christ is really and truly
king, ruler. He is the sovereign of the universe. He is God. And Paul rounds out
this description of the exercise of God’s power when he says,
he gave him as head over all things to the church. In a very
real way, he is the church’s possession. The church enjoys
Christ as its ruler and guide and head. It is, after all, Christ’s
church. I did all that to show you that
really Paul has not lost track of his outline as he comes into
chapter two here. Paul wants the Gentiles to know
not only the power of God as exercised towards Christ, he
wants them to know the power of God exercised toward them. And in chapter 2 verse 1, he
reminds them that you were dead. And then he applies the same
exact outline to these Ephesian believers,
who at one time were dead in their trespasses and transgressions,
just like the rest of the world, just like every person ever born,
steeped in sin and bearing the full weight of guilt because
of it. dead in their trespasses and sins, spiritually dead, but
God, look at verse four, but God, same outline, made us alive
together with Christ, raised us up and seated us with Him. In a very real sense, if you
have placed your faith in Christ, you are already a co-heir of
God’s great kingdom. You are reigning with Christ.
His victory is our victory. His resurrection is our resurrection. His life is our life. And Paul rejoices. He wants the
Ephesian believers to know just how great God’s power is, not
just towards Christ, but to them. And then he reminds them. this
scattered bunch of really former heathen, not Jewish believers,
not Jewish converts to the faith, to Christianity, but those who
were in every way godless, completely without God in their lives. He wants them to know that they
are now not only part of God’s kingdom, but they are deservedly
so. They are not second-class citizens
in God’s kingdom. They are the very children of
God. For this, I want you to jump
down to verse 11 of chapter two. In chapter two, verse 11, Paul
begins this series, this discussion of really the godless history
of the Gentiles. And Paul here calls on the Gentile
portion of the Ephesian church to humility by asking them to
recall their previous standing. Look at verse 11. Therefore remember
that formerly In other words, things are different now. Paul
is not chiding them or chastising them. He’s reminding them graciously
and gently who they used to be. They can just look over their
shoulder, back to verse 4, but God, this is what they used to
be. Remember that formerly you, the
Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision, by the
so-called circumcision, this almost a taunt that was thrown
at the heathen, the Gentiles, by Jewish believers who were
on the outside, according to the Jewish religion, kept them on
the outside, didn’t want them on the inside, and because of
that they taunted them with this title. At that time, he says,
you were, you used to be at that time separate from Christ. You
didn’t have access to the Savior. You were excluded from the commonwealth
of Israel even prior to Christ’s coming. The Jews kept them out
completely against God’s design and plan. And look at verse 12,
not only were you separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth
of Israel, you were strangers to the covenants of promise.
And then this sad reality. This is where our friends and
neighbors are as they drive around on a Sunday morning with no intent
or design to go to church. They aren’t happy. If they are
godless, if they are outside of Christ, this describes them
better than anything. Having no hope and without God
in the world. That describes the Gentile world,
the heathen, those who had no God, those who had no real God,
those who had not the God of Israel. They had no hope without
God. But verse 13 begins with a strong
contrast, doesn’t it? Indicating that something remarkable
has happened that altered their standing forever. It’s Jesus
Christ who has brought about this change. God had now included
the Gentiles, brought them in into the great portion of humanity
who has been reconciled to himself by the redemption that was procured
by Christ’s blood. Remember last week? In Him we
have redemption. Through His blood, His death
did something. It meant something. It purchased
something. What it purchased was sinners.
Look at verse 13. But now, things have changed. Things have changed for the Gentile
world, for the heathens that were outside of God. No hope. But now, in Christ Jesus, if
they have placed their faith in Christ Jesus, you, who were
formerly far off, have been brought near. Now there’s hope enough
in that, but it’s going to get better and better for the Gentile
believers. You have been brought near by
the blood of Christ, and not just near, you have been brought
into the very heart of God, as Paul will go on to say. Look
at verse 14. For he himself is our peace who
made both groups, that is Jews and Gentiles, into one and broke
down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh
the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances.
In the Jewish temple, Gentiles were allowed to come, they were
allowed to come, but only so far. And then they couldn’t come
any further. Jesus says, God has broken down
that wall. There is no longer a just separation. There’s no longer a reason and
cause to keep the Gentiles, the heathen, out of God’s kingdom. They’re part of His family now. Look at verse 16, that He might
reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross. Both
Jews and Gentiles Heretofore, up to this point, Gentiles thought
that they were on the outs, Jews thought that they were the exclusive
children of God, and they flaunted it. And God opens things up to
the Gentile believers. and says, no, salvation is for
you. Salvation is for you. And when
you come to God in faith, when you reconcile to Him through
Christ, through what Christ did on the cross, you are part of
God’s family. But this good news, this news
of Christ’s redemption and reconciliation, it must be communicated They
must hear in order to come to faith, and God sees to that as
well. God sent His messengers into
the world on behalf of Christ, with the message of Christ, the
reconciler of sinners to God. God sent His messengers even
to the regions of all places. Ephesus steeped in all this idolatry
of centuries of looking beyond God and outside of God for God. They wanted something in which
to believe and so a statue would do just fine or so they thought. But God sends his messengers
even into Ephesus to proclaim salvation by faith in Christ. Look at verse 17. And He came
and preached peace to you who were far away. It didn’t have
to literally be Jesus Himself preaching because we know that
Jesus Himself never went to Ephesus. But His messengers did. They
came preaching Christ. They came sharing Christ. He
came and preached to you who were far away and peace to those
who were near. For through Him we both have
our access in one Spirit to the Father. And so we come to verses
19 through 22, where I wanna spend our time today. As we just
blitz through the epistle to the Ephesians, as I shared an
epistle that I haven’t been in since 2001, we’re doing this
just really to appreciate, to relish, to enjoy this precious
epistle of an apostle to his beloved churches. I wanna spend
some time here in verses 19 through 22. There is a thing that has
become increasingly popular in the bigger cities. It’s called
the parade of homes. And essentially what happens
is they go through this selection process If your home is deemed
to be upgraded and renovated and remodeled and nice enough,
it is placed on a list and then the maps are given and provided
and various realtors and whatnot host people as they tour through
your home. I know it doesn’t sound really
that exciting, does it, to have a whole bunch of people traipsing
through your home? I thought about that very image
when I came to this, because essentially what we have is a
tour, a guided tour by the Holy Spirit himself through the house
of God. This is the parade of homes,
and this is the home of all homes. This is the greatest home ever,
and we have a free tour, an opportunity to be guided through this home. And I just want to point out
four particular and distinctive features of the dwelling place
of God as Paul paints the picture. Four distinctive features of
the dwelling place of God. First of all, the people who
live here. The people who live here. Look at verse 19. So then
you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens
with the saints and are of God’s household. He tells the Gentiles,
these heathen idolaters, who up to only recently were on the
outside looking in, have no hope, no God, no real God, nothing
but a statue made of wood, or marble, or gold, nothing but
a fake, phony, handmade, handcrafted, so-called God, until only recently. And now
they have been brought near. Now they find themselves to be
part of God’s household. He says, first of all, you are
no longer strangers and aliens. Up to this point, the Gentiles,
as I said, were on the outside looking in. They were strangers.
They were deemed to be citizens of another country. Just those,
what we used to call out-of-towners, non-locals. The word is often translated
in the New Testament as just strange. Strange deities, strange
things. But it’s very frequently translated
as stranger pointing to somebody who is not from here. That’s
how the Jews looked at Gentiles. You’re not part of us. You’re
not one of us. Jesus used this language and
it’s strong language. I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something
to drink. I was a stranger and you invited
me in. It’s this holding people at arm’s
length, treating them almost like they’re subhuman. And that’s
what the Jews had begun to do to the Gentile world. They were
held out as strangers. They were, as we would say in
our day and age, disenfranchised. They weren’t part of our country.
They weren’t part of our city. They weren’t us. They weren’t
of us. And we don’t want them here. Israel had come to ostracize
us. and to keep away from all who
were not Israel, all who were not born as Jews, and all of
those who were outside of Israel were deemed and held to be foreigners. It was God’s house after all. And these were God’s people.
And as God’s people, they wanted to protect God’s house and keep
only those available and welcoming God’s house, God’s children. That wasn’t God’s design ever. But that’s what the Jews had
begun to do with it. not only strangers, but even
more strongly here, aliens. These are travelers and they’re
designed to be travelers and nothing more than travelers.
You’re welcome to pass through, we’ll rent you a room, we’ll
give you accommodations for the night, and then you’re on your
way. Israel knew that they had been
tasked commanded to take care of the strangers, to take care
of those who were called sojourners. The word is a fascinating one.
It literally means beside the house. These were those that
were, as it were, allowed to sleep beside the house. They
lacked any domestic privilege. They could come into the house
sometimes, perhaps as guests, perhaps as renters, but they
weren’t allowed to stay for long. They weren’t allowed to make
themselves at home. A lot of times we’ll say that,
won’t we? Make yourself at home. But we
don’t really mean it. We don’t mean if you want to
put your feet on the coffee table, please feel free. If you want
to wear your shoes on that, please don’t. Whatever you’re comfortable
doing. The fridge is yours. We say it,
but we don’t really mean it. And in these people’s case, the
Jews made sure that they understood what they meant. You’re welcome
here for the night and then you’re on your way. You’re a foreigner.
You’re just passing through. The Gentiles had come to regard
this house of God as a house that was not open to them. His
people were not open to them. They were outsiders. But as I
said, Paul points out that things have changed. Things have changed
dramatically. But he says, now you are fellow
citizens with the saints. And I don’t know everybody’s
background here, but when Paul says that you are fellow citizens
with the saints, that is just absolutely astounding to me,
because what he’s pointing to there is not the idea of a Roman Catholic
saint, one of, what, 700 over the course of 2,000 years, for
which status you have to wait until you die and then Several
years later, they’ll have a meeting and talk, and people will vote
and decide whether you did enough good things to be determined
a saint. That’s not what Paul’s talking about at all. He’s talking
about those who had placed their faith in Christ even prior to
his coming, as Hebrews 11 talks. Those who were truly God’s people. And he says to these Gentile
believers in Ephesus, you now, you now are fellow citizens with
the saints. You’re not second class citizens.
I like to picture it like this. When we get to heaven, we’re
gonna sit down and we’re not gonna sit down at that far table
We’re gonna be mingled in with the Abrahams of the world, with
David, with Moses, with all of the Old Testament saints, because
we too are saints. We too are the people of God.
We are fellow citizens with all of God’s people. We’re not second
class citizens. We’re not also rams. We’re not
those who come along after the fact. Our name is graven on the
same list. If we have placed our faith in
Christ, we are honored as members of the family. One pastor said
it this way, these saints are God’s people, not the Jews as
a race, nor yet only contemporary Christians, nor yet simply saints
of the Old Testament. It’s a spiritual organization.
They who live no longer as foreigners did. Christians are now fellow
citizens. Paul says, we’re not second class. If you’re not born with the blood
and the bloodline of a Jew, you’re not a second-class citizen if
you have placed your faith in Christ. You belong here. You belong in God’s house. You
live here. You are welcome here. You’re of God’s household, he
says in closing. He says, you are no longer strangers
and aliens. You are fellow citizens with
the saints. You are of God’s household. This word is a fascinating one
in the New Testament. It can be used either as house
to describe a dwelling, as if we’re touring through a house,
or it can be used to describe a household, a people, a body
of people called a family. So it’s not just that we’ve been
invited into the mansion in the sky, into the big house. We have
been invited in, welcomed in, embraced as part of God’s family. We are members of the family
of God. This word In 1 Timothy 5, if
anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of
his household, this was tasked with any male relative to care
for those of his household. Well, you would think that a
male relative is only responsible for his wife and children, not
so. It was his mother, it was his father, it was anyone in
his family, sister, brother, It was anyone in that greater
family that could be called a relative. He was to show care for them. What God says is that’s how big
the family is. It’s everybody. Everybody who
names the name of Christ is part of this family. And in God’s
house, we don’t come intimately. We don’t come in expecting to
be brushed off and sent to the smallest room at the end of the
hall. We belong there like any other people. We are family members
now. With all the rights and privilege,
we can go to the fridge, right? We are of God’s household. We’re
not guests just passing through. We’re not members of another
nation, foreigners as it were, aliens, strangers. We’re of God’s
house. We belong there. But as we tour
this house, not only do we see the people that live there, and
that we are welcome there as members of God’s household. The
second distinctive feature that we can’t help but notice about
the dwelling place of God is the excellence of its construction. Look at the passage once again.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, verse 19, but you
are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God’s household,
having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. What he points to here, the illustration
is a familiar one. I’ll tell you more about that
in a moment. But what he points to here is the construction process,
the excellence of the construction process. And without saying so,
he’ll tell us elsewhere about this, without saying so, he basically
takes each individual believer and works them into the construction
of this great edifice. When he says that we are part
of God’s household having been built, he says that God picked
us up as it were like a brick and placed us into the wall. That’s the image. That’s the
illustration that Paul is using, is the image, the illustration
of a construction project, a great construction project, upon which
we are built and placed. And note that he says that it
is something that has been done, that as we place our faith in
Christ, we have been placed upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets. Now there’s all kinds of discussion,
and I’m going to save it for another day. Maybe when I preach
through Ephesians again one day. There’s all kinds of discussion
as to who the prophets are, who the apostles are. I believe that
what he’s talking about here are New Testament prophets, not
the Old Testament prophets. Because if you’ll notice, he
mentions the apostles first. The apostles and those who went
about with a word from God to proclaim Christ, remember the
Gospels weren’t written until very late. And the message needed
to go forth about Christ and God employed New Testament modern
day prophets to go out and lay the foundation for his church.
Not just the 11 apostles add one. He said, the prophets as
well. And he calls them, he mentions
them, not only apostles, but secondly, the prophets. And he
says that his apostles and prophets went about proclaiming this good
news, laying a foundation. The foundation was Christ. They
went about proclaiming Christ in all clarity so that those
who place their faith in him would be built into this grand,
incredible structure. This particular passage is familiar to us, isn’t
it? This idea, this illustration
that Paul’s using. If it sounds familiar, it should
be, because it’s used plentifully throughout the entire Bible.
Not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. We have recently seen it, recently
I say within the last couple of years, we saw it in 1 Corinthians
3.10. According to the grace of God,
Paul says there, which was given to me, there’s no way that you
can do ministry without the grace of God. According to the grace
of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I
laid a foundation and another is building upon it. And so he
sees his hold of this very frequently used illustration in scripture
of a building, of the church of God’s people being a building,
each one of them a brick, in a sense, in that wall as part
of that structure. Peter uses it also. Would you
take a moment and just turn to 1 Peter 2. Peter uses this same illustration
and the really amazing thing about Peter’s use is he will
draw from the Old Testament to paint this picture of this construction
project. Remember at the moment we are
examining the construction of this incredible temple. First Peter chapter two, let’s
start in verse four. First Peter, Peter says here,
and coming to him as a living stone. He basically tells all
of his readers who are professing believers, if you have professed
faith in Christ, you are, in a sense, a block of stone. He’s not insulting them, bear
with me, bear with him. Coming to him as to a living
stone rejected by men but choice and precious in the sight of
God. Jesus Christ also is a stone. Now we really know that he’s
not insulting us. coming to him as to a living
stone rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of
God, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual
house for a holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ. Peter uses the same exact illustration. He says, look, the apostles and
prophets laid the foundation, and you, block by block, are
being built into the wall, but there’s a special stone. There’s
one very special stone. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that’s what he talks about in verse 6. And here he uses, he
cites Isaiah 28 16. For this is contained in scripture.
Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,
and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. He says,
look, examine this incredible building project that God himself
is overseeing, God is superintending, God is the project manager, if
you will, and God has seen fit to lay the cornerstone, Christ
himself. Talk more about the cornerstone
in a second. He quotes another verse. He quotes Psalm 118. 22. Does Peter look at verse
7? This precious value is for then for you who believe. In other words, he says that
if you come to Christ, if you would only come to Christ and
place your faith in Christ, this stone, this cornerstone, which
starts and establishes and leads to a perfect building, if you
will only come to faith in him, you will be part of that incredible
building, but if not, This precious value is for you who believe,
but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders
rejected, this became the very cornerstone. In other words,
they stumble over the stone, and he quotes a third verse in
verse 8, Isaiah 8.14, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
We either come to Christ in faith and are built into this grand
structure or we stumble over the stone of Christ and we are
rejected. And so he points to the chief
cornerstone. The cornerstone was a perfectly
square block. Its angles were perfect 90 degrees. And so that when it was set,
it was perfectly plumb and perfectly level and perfectly square so
that the building, everything about the building depended on
the placement of that initial stone. And it depended not only
on the placement of that initial stone, but it depended on the
quality of that initial stone And what Peter and Paul both
indicate is that Jesus Christ being the cornerstone is perfect. And the church built upon him
will be perfect. It will be symmetrical. It will
be level and plum and square. It will be perfect. The cornerstone is Christ Jesus
in the church. Just as one pastor said, the
laying of a cornerstone prepares for the setting down of the corner
of the building, which connects and concentrates itself, the
weight of the building. Jesus Christ is the divinely
appointed, qualified and accepted Savior who unites and sustains
his church. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. All of The perfection of the
building starts and begins with Him. It’s a saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ that brings us to the building. And that saving
faith and full dependence on the finished work of Christ as
we saw last week. Redemption in His blood. Redemption because of what Jesus
Christ purchased with His own blood. We come to Christ and
we place our faith in Him and in that finished work of atonement
on our behalf. And we know that when we come
to Him, we place our faith in a Savior who loves us and knows
our being. He knows our weaknesses. He intercedes
on our behalf and He begins the process of the work of sanctification
perfecting us. And that one day, God’s word
tells us we will be glorified, we will be perfect. And I know
that’s hard to believe right now. But if we have placed our
faith in Christ, one day, we have all hope, we will be perfect
in Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. He is the measuring standard,
he is the one that sets the course of the walls. We’re noting distinctive features
of the dwelling place of God, not only the people who live
there and the excellent construction, but look thirdly at the designed
function of this building. It’s not just any building. It’s
not a mini mall. It’s not a house, really. Look at verse 21. And I’ll back up to verse 20 to take
a running start at it. Having been built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together
is growing into a temple in the Lord. When he says here, when Paul
says in whom, he’s pointing back to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
is the cornerstone. Everything depends on him. Plum
level square. Everything depends on the Lord
Jesus Christ. In whom the whole building. Every
part of the building ultimately rests on that cornerstone and
on the perfection of that stone. in whom the whole entire building,
the whole body of organized believers is, look at this, being fitted
together. Now it’s God who’s overseeing
the construction project, and he has a perfect cornerstone
with which to begin this project, and everything that comes, God
fits in perfectly. And note that it’s being done. The project isn’t over. The gates of heaven are still
open. There are still those that need to come to Christ to be
saved. But when they are, God takes
up this new block and works it into the wall and fits it in
perfectly. They belong there. It’s a, it’s an intimate union
with God through faith in Christ. Ephesians four is the only other
place this word is used. We’ve seen it. We saw it within
the past year as we just briefly looked at this passage at the
start of this year. Ephesians four, you know, the
gifts given to the church, the church is doing the work of service.
The church is doing the ministry. We’re merely equipping these
believers to do the work of service. And then it talks about, in Ephesians
4.16, the body. And it says, from whom the whole
body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies. Now the image has changed. You
are the joints. You are the tendons and the muscles
of the building. And he says, every single one
of us has been fitted together for a purpose. In whom the whole
building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple
in the Lord. Not just a vacation home. Not
a warehouse. It’s not just a showpiece, an
opera house, what have you. It’s a holy temple in the Lord. This is a place of worship that
God is building, that God started with the Lord Jesus Christ, that
God is going to finish with each individual member being built
into that wall. Peter used the same illustration.
He said, you also, as living stones, are being built up as
a, remember what he said, spiritual house. For what? For a holy priesthood. To do what? To offer up sacrifices. Peter just used a much longer
descriptive there. All Paul says here is, you’re
a holy temple. God is building a holy temple
in the world, in the Lord, for his holy priesthood to come in
and offer sacrifices. It’s a place of worship. It’s a place of worship. And
the church, the great body of God’s people, that’s what he’s
talking about. It’s not a building. It’s not
a building per se. It’s a body of people in which
God dwells for the purpose of worship. That was always God’s
purpose in living among the Jewish nation. Whether it was in a tent
or a temple, God dwelt there for the purpose of bearing a
witness to them. in manifesting His glory, in
teaching them, in teaching them about worship. And what Paul
says here is this growth of this building, this development of
this incredible structure is ultimately for the purpose of
worship. Because guess what? Each individual block, each individual
member is indwelt by none other than the Holy Spirit of God,
right? No wonder when the structure
is all complete, God dwells in it. I told you there were four distinctive
features of this dwelling place of God. Not only the people who
live there and the excellent construction, the designed function,
but the spiritual unity. And we’ll close with this. Look at the passage again. So
then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow
citizens with the saints and are of God’s household, having
been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being
fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In
whom? In whom you also are being built
together into a dwelling of God, in the Spirit. Paul says that you and I are
being built together. You and I and the Old Testament
saints are being built together. You and I and everyone who’s
ever placed their faith in Almighty God in hopes of salvation are
being built together into a holy temple. A place ultimately where
God Himself will dwell. You’re not second class citizens. God wants you to be part of his
construction project. God wants you to be part of this
grand edifice that he’s building. You don’t have to add to it.
You don’t have to contribute to the project. You don’t have
to scrutinize the materials. God has done it all. God is doing
it all. God began the project with His
own Son, whom He calls here the cornerstone of the entire project.
You don’t have to worry about whether you will fit in. You
don’t have to worry about whether you’re good enough. God will
make you fit. God will fit you in perfectly. because it’s God’s project. Would you humble yourself as
we examine our hearts before the Lord? Our merciful God, as we so often read our scriptures,
especially the Old Testament, Lord, often we fall into the
trap that they had something that we didn’t. They had all
these divine manifestations. They had this seemingly even
more special relationship with God than we do. We come along
and all we’ve done along the course of our life is hear about
Christ and place our faith in Christ. And we’re thankful to
be included. We’re really, truly thankful. But Lord, we can’t help feeling
sometimes like second class citizens. Like somehow we’ve got to fit
in with the crowd and take a back seat and sit way in the back of those Old Testament saints
as outlined in Hebrews 11. But Lord, your word says we are
of your household. We are your people. We’re part
of the family, we belong there. If we have placed our faith in
your son, the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord God,
if there are any who do not know that they are part of this building,
that do not know this savior, who is already paid for the sin
of sinners. Lord God, may this be the day
where they open their eyes and come to faith in Christ and be
built into His holy temple. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray,
amen.