I want you to look with me in
Ephesians chapter 2. Book of Ephesians chapter 2. In these verses, these last verses
of this chapter, the Apostle Paul has been led
by the Holy Spirit to speak of the church of the living God
Paul called it the pillar and ground of truth. That tells me
that when you come to a gathering like this and call ourselves
a church, we ought to be hearing the truth. I saw in the paper where there's
a local religious organization that's getting ready to vote
on whether or not they want to stay with their denomination.
It's over homosexuality and all of these things that are coming
into play. Well, we don't vote on the truth.
Now get that, we know that. When we read in the scriptures
in Ephesians chapter one, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places in Christ, we don't vote on that. Is that
true or not? We know it's true because God
said it. And so what Paul is doing here, he's describing the
true church of the living God, known by many names in the scripture. They're known as the elect of
God. And incidentally, we don't vote
on that either. Somebody one time, a false preacher, he described
election. He says, God cast his vote for
you, the devil cast his vote against you, and you cast the
deciding vote. Well, that's not election in the scripture. God's
elect chosen before the world began in Christ. Their names
written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. They're called by other names,
I won't go into all of them, but here in Ephesians chapter
two, he's describing the true church as a building, a building
that Christ himself has built, and Christ by himself has built. He says in the last verse of
this chapter, It says, in whom you also are builded together
for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. That's the church.
Build it together by Christ. People talk about having a ministry
of church building. We don't build churches. This
building is not the church as much as we love this building
and thank God for it and ought to take care of it. It's where
we meet and I'm thankful that God gave us this place. we can
come to and worship but the church is the people of God justified
in Christ who have access to God accepted in Christ the church
the Lord Church literally means called out one it's from the
Greek word ecclesia you know for example we have in the Old
Testament the book of Ecclesiastes The title of that book is actually
from a translation, translating the Old Testament into Greek.
And it's Ecclesiastes, and it means a gathering, a congregation.
And that's what we are. So often in Scripture, in other
passages, we find the founding and the formation of the true
church of the living God. It's described as the Lord Jesus
Christ building a building. We read that in Psalm 102 in
the opening verses there. If the sanctuary Zion is cut,
that's a metaphor for the church. And you remember when Christ
speaking to his disciples and he asked him this question, he
said, who do men say that I am? And they gave him the answers
that men were speculating over. And then he looked him in the
eye and he says, who do you say that I am? And Peter spoke up,
and he says, thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living
God. And Christ told him, he said,
blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you, but my Father which is in heaven. It's a revelation
from God. And he says, and you are Peter.
And upon this rock I will build my church. Now, you know what
some people do with that. They say, well, he's talking
to Peter there and say, Peter, I'm going to build my church
on you. That is a lie. He doesn't build his church on
sinful men, even sinners saved by grace. Actually, the way he
put it in that verse in Matthew 16, that passage, He used two different words.
When he said Peter, he used the word Petras, which means a little
stone, a little rock. And when he said upon this rock
I'll build my church, that's a big boulder. And he's speaking
of himself. He's speaking of what Peter confessed,
not Peter himself. I'm gonna build my church on
the fact that I'm the Christ. That's what he was saying. And
I will finish the work. And that passage that Brother
David read out of 1 Peter 2, that's why I had him read that
because that's what it's talking about. Look at it, he says in
1 Peter 2 and verse 5, you also as lively or living stones. That's what the people of God
are, we're living stones. Like this church building is
made out of brick and it's brick, that's what we are. We're the
stones that he builds his church with. And he says, disallowed
indeed of men, men don't wanna have anything to do with us,
that's the natural man, but chosen of God and precious, that's what
he calls us. I'll tell you what, if we're
precious to the Lord, ought we not be precious to each other?
We sure should, shouldn't we? Shame on us, that's what sometimes,
right? Isn't that right? And he said,
that's right. Thank God for grace. You know,
I often recited that little ditty that I recite, you know, when
it says to live above with saints we love will be a wondrous glory,
to live below with saints we know, well, that's another story.
But you know what? We kid about that all the time
and sometimes even make excuses for it. But I can honestly say
that I love you in the Lord. I don't love you perfectly. And
my love for you is not my righteousness before God. We ought to love
each other. We ought to love one another.
And we do. And we do. And that's a gift from God, isn't
it? That's a gift that God gives us through his word in Christ. But here he says, you also, verse
5 of 1 Peter 2, living stones, not dead bricks, living stones,
living by the power of God, built up a spiritual house, that's
what the church is, it's a spiritual house, and holy priesthood. A separated people who have access
to the Father through the Son to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Now what are those spiritual
sacrifices? It's our worship. It's our prayers. It's our service
to God. And he says all of it acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Anything we do for the glory
of God can only be accepted with God on the basis of a perfect
righteousness, which can only be found in Christ. It's all
grace. It's all grace. And he goes on
in 1 Peter 2 to call Christ the chief cornerstone, and we're
gonna deal with that here in these verses. Look over Ephesians
2 and verse 16. In this building, Builded together
by Christ as it stated in verse 22 in this building God the father
is the great architect of this building Laying out the plans
all according to his sovereign will and purpose Chosen from
the beginning in Christ and Christ is the actual builder and it's
built upon the mortar of his blood and He is the righteousness
of the church. And you know what God the Holy
Spirit does? He lays the stones. He calls us into the church.
Men aren't church builders, they claim to be. They don't build
a church when they build a building, they build a building. And when
they do things to get people in the church where there's no
truth, they're not building a church, they're just building a religious
organization that's an abomination to God. That's what it is. That's what
men build. Christ, in the accomplishment
of salvation by God's grace, has brought all believers, Jew
and Gentile, together as one in him. Now that's what Paul
had been talking about. When he died on the cross, every
believer here this morning, he died for you. I can't look at men in general
and say Christ died for everybody. I can't say that. The Bible doesn't
say that. But I can tell every true believer he died for you.
He was buried for you. He was raised again for you.
For all of us together, in a representative way, in a legal way, Christ died
for his people. And I can tell you this, that
His death for us had nothing to do with any condition laid
upon us or anything we do or try to do or decide to do. It
was all according to the sovereign will of God. Paul wrote here,
he's our peace. He's brought believing Jew and
believing Gentile together as one. And I love that passage.
Look at verse 15. He says, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments. When he died on that cross, he
abolished that division that was brought about in the old
covenant that separated Jew and Gentile. That's the enmity that
he's talking about here. And he says, the law of commandments
contained in the ordinances for to make in himself in Christ
of twain, of two, one new man. So make him peace. Don't you
love that? He brought us together. And I
read over in Galatians 3 last week how in Christ there's no
division of us. There are things that are specifically
different about each of us. But we're not to use those things
to exalt ourselves, to separate ourselves. We're together in
Christ. One new man. That's what he calls
the church there. And so look at verse 16. He says
that Christ in building this church in verses 16 and 17, he
says this is a work of reconciliation. Reconciling. People who are by
nature enemies of God. Reconciling them to God. And
people who are by nature enemies of each other. Bringing us together.
Look at it. And that he might reconcile both
unto God. How are we reconciled unto God?
By the blood of Jesus Christ. In one body. See, this is the
one work of the one person at the one time. on the cross. Christ established in his redemptive
work that by which sinners have been reconciled to God all along,
even in the Old Testament. Brother Gary Shepherd preached
on the friends of God. I can't remember the title of
the message now. But Abraham was a friend of God. Now we know
he wasn't a friend of God by nature. We know God was his friend.
before he was even born. But he was an enemy of God by
nature, just as we all are. But how does he make us friends?
Reconciled unto God in one body, one body, that's the church.
By the cross, having slain the enmity, thereby or in himself. Christ did that. You don't do
that. You don't do it when you, as
we say, join the church or get baptized. You unite with a local
body of believers in that way. But this is the work of Christ.
He's the builder of the church. Upon this rock, he said, I will
build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against
us. We can't even break it up. That's
what he's saying. And he goes on, he says, and
came and preached peace, the gospel of peace. What kind of
peace is this talking about? It's not talking about peace
between men and women as far as nations or politics or economics
goes. When Christ was to come into
the world, the angel appeared unto the shepherds and he said,
peace on earth and goodwill. But he still wasn't talking about
peace between nations. If he was, we'd have to say Christ
is a failure. Because there's not peace between
nations, is there? I heard him this morning talking
about China and how they're preparing for war, they said. I don't know
about all that. I know God's in control. But there's not peace between
nations. and not even peace between individuals
naturally. Do you remember when Christ said,
I didn't come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword, and
a man's foes will be those of his own household? Think about that. This is peace
between God and sinners. God has been reconciled. 2 Corinthians
5, 19 says, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. He's talking about
a specific people. in this world, all over this
world, Jew and Gentile, to whom God does not charge with sin. Now, who is that? That's the
elect, Romans 8, 34. Who shall anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. And how
does he bring peace between God and ourselves? Because by nature,
the Bible says we're enemies of God. I read that this morning
when we were in our Bible study. Look over at Hebrews chapter
two. This is reconciliation. That's
how Christ builds his church. God is reconciled to his people
whom he chose before the foundation of the world based upon the blood
of the lamb. That lamb that came in time and
was persecuted and died on that cross in time. That's the one
ground of reconciliation. It's the one ground of salvation.
It's the one ground of justification. Look at Hebrews chapter two and
verse 14. He says, for as much then as
the children, now that's his church, that's God's adopted
children, the elect, chosen in Christ before the world began,
and they're partakers of flesh and blood, that's what we are,
flesh and blood. We also have a spirit if we're
born again. He puts a new spirit within us.
He also himself, Christ, took part of the same. What is that
talking about? He took part of flesh and blood.
He was made flesh. And he was made flesh without
sin. And it says that through death, he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. The devil's power
of death is not the power to kill somebody. The Lord killeth
and the Lord maketh alive. The power of death that the devil
has was as the accuser of the brethren. In other words, he
accuses us of sin. But because God is reconciled
to us and we've been reconciled to God, the charges don't stick. There's no charge laid to our
account. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. So he says in verse 15,
Christ, to deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage, for verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham,
that's the elect, his church. Wherefore, for this reason, in
all things it behooved him, that word behooved is the Greek word
for debt. He had our debt laid to his charge. when he was made
surety of the covenant. And he willingly took that death
and it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that he
might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. This is a work of reconciliation.
Bringing sinners together on the basis of the bloodshed of
Jesus Christ. Preaching the gospel of peace.
That's what we preach. Not you making your peace with
God, but God making peace for you in the person and work of
Christ. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, he went
on to describe the ministry of the gospel as the ministry of
reconciliation. We're not here to tell you a
lie. We're not here to say, smile, God loves you, smile, Christ
died for you. We're here to tell you how God
has reconciled the sinners and sinners to God. And he states
it in verse 21 of 2 Corinthians 5, for God the Father made Him,
God the Son incarnate, Christ, to be sin. Christ who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
That sin imputed to Christ and righteousness imputed us together
in Christ. And over here in our text, he
speaks of having slain the enmity. When he says he's slain the enmity,
he means that the Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself the
judgment that the broken law required. That he's paid the
full price for his people, the people of God, his sheep, His
church, which He redeemed with His own blood. And that's why
the people of God go free. Our penalty's been paid. Our
debt's been paid, being full. And therefore, heaven can exact
no further penalty. Jesus paid it all. All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
but He washed it white as snow. Everything was accomplished for
us. by the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And by virtue of doing away with the law, the old covenant
law, that conditional law that condemns both Jew and Gentile
who believe, who are brought to faith in Christ by God-given
faith, they now stand on the same ground before the Lord God. It's no different for me than
it is for you who know Christ. And the purpose of the reconciling
work of the Lord Jesus, in which the law's done away with, is
to ultimately reconcile Jew and Gentile together, us together. Not only to one another, but
to God himself, and that he might bring both unto God in one body,
one new man. And you know that cancels all
judgment of salvation and righteousness by works of the law? That's right. It's only as we confess Christ.
Look at verse 18 of Ephesians 2. Or verse 17, and came and
preached peace to you which were far off and to them that were
nigh, talking about the Jews who had the law, the Gentiles
who had not the law, but all brought nigh, nigh to where?
Near unto God. Near unto God. To be near unto
God. To be near unto God without Christ
is death. it means you'll be consumed by
the judgment of God. That's why Adam, when he fell,
he ran from God. He didn't want to be near to
God, because he knew it was death. But to be near to God in Christ,
the Lord is nigh, near unto them, who are of a broken and contrite
spirit, who know our sinfulness, know our frame, who know that
if God were to ever judge us based upon our best efforts to
keep the law, we'd be damned forever. The Lord's nigh unto them. You
know why? Because that glorifies Him, that's
His work. That's what he does to bring
us together. In the book of verse 18, for through him, through
Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit, the
Spirit of God, who empowers the gospel of peace and brings us
to the Father. Be ye reconciled to God. That's what a church is. It's
full of people, sinners, who have been brought near to God,
who have access to God. the Father by one Spirit on one
ground, the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that amazing? It's through the cross work of
Christ that we're reconciled to God and to one another. So
look at verse 19. Now therefore, now don't miss this. Now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners. You're not a, There's
not some class of Christians that we put on the outside or
behind the wall, that middle wall partition that we spoke
of last week in that temple, that human temple. That wall
has been broken down. But you're, now listen, this
is a good, this is something important. You're fellow citizens
with the saints. Now, That puts to death this
idea that has been promoted by the false Catholic Church, that
it is the Pope who makes one or canonizes a person as a saint,
and a saint is only some kind of super-Christian who's given
his life to the service and performed so many, that's ungodly, my friend. That's not biblical. That's not
glorifying to God. You're a fellow citizen with
the saints. You know what that means? That
means if you stand before God in Christ, believing in Him,
resting in Him, you too are a saint. I'm Saint Bill. You're Saint
Fountain. Saint Leon. Saint Arthur. Saint
Ray. All y'all. If I don't mention
your name, don't get mad. You're still a saint if you believe
in Christ. That's what this is saying. Equal. We're all equally sinful. I know
the world doesn't see it that way because they divide up, but
I'm talking about in God's sight, according to God's standard.
Well, my friend, in Christ, we're equally saved. We're fellow citizens
with the saints, and we're all equal members of the household
of God, the church, the family of God. There's no hierarchy
here. There's no Pope here. There's
no vicar of Christ here. There's no Monsignors and Cardinals
and call no man father in a spiritual way. Only God is our father. All equally blessed. Blessed
with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. So what he said at the beginning. And then look at verse
20. He says, and you're built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. Now don't miss this too now.
You're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
What is the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Does that
mean we're built upon Jeremiah and Isaiah and Paul and Peter? No. The foundation of the apostles
and prophets is Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. We're built upon Christ, upon
this confession. He says, I'll build my church
upon this rock. The rock Christ Jesus, build
it on the rock. And he's the chief cornerstone.
Think about all the facets of Christ as it applies to the church.
He's the foundation of the church, the rock. He's the head of the
church. He's the heart of the church,
that's the life of it. And he's the chief cornerstone.
What does that mean? It means everything in the church
is measured as it pertains to Christ and the glory of his person
and the power of his finished work and held together by him. Here's the thing, we may do things
that we shouldn't do, we may get mad at each other, but if
the preaching of Jesus Christ is not enough to keep you here,
what does that say about you? I know if I do you wrong, I should
apologize. I do. Sometimes my pride gets
in the way. But what keeps me behind this
pulpit? What keeps me here in this church? It's Christ, the
chief cornerstone. And everything's measured by
Him. That's what keeps us humble. We can talk about how we love
God and how we should love Him. Lord, help me to love you more.
But if I think that it's my love that gains me access with God,
then I need to compare it with Christ's love. And it falls way
short. I have no righteousness in myself,
but I have Christ who is my righteousness. And he's the chief cornerstone.
Verse 21, in whom all the building fitly framed, that means it's
right where it ought to be. Fitly framed. It all fits together
perfectly. There's no stone out of place. Now, what does that tell you?
That tells you it's got to be the work of Christ. I tell Debbie all the time that
when I do things at the house, you know, I'm not a natural handyman. But sometimes I'll try to do
some things that she wants done. And I said, over the years, I
have learned the value of imperfection. in the work that I do. It's kind
of like my mark on everything. You can walk in there and say,
well, Bill did that. Now, some of you guys are a lot better
than me. They might walk in and say, I can't see a flaw. But
I have learned the value of imperfection. But I get it done. But in this
church, there's no imperfection. Now, I know it's filled with
imperfect people. Don't get me wrong. We're sinners
saved by grace. But in the building of this church,
nothing's out of place. Everything's right where it ought
to be. And he says, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy
temple. The growth of the church takes
place as Christ calls in his people, calls in his sheep. That's the growth here. And holy
temple. a sanctified temple in the Lord. And what is this temple? Look
at verse 22, in whom you also are built together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit. The habitation of God? You can't
contain God in a building. As one old preacher said, you
can't put God in a box and carry him around like he's some sort
of appendage. So what is he talking about?
I'll tell you what he's talking about. Talking about like the
temple of God, back in the Old Covenant. The temple of God,
the tabernacle, had the Holy of Holies. We're in the mercy
seat, the Ark of the Covenant, and that's where the Shekinah
glory of God dwelt. That's where God revealed himself
in his glory, his nature. And it was all a picture of salvation
by the grace of God in and by the person and work of Christ.
Well, do you know that's what we are today? The church. You know that Shekinah glory?
You don't see the word Shekinah in the Bible, but it's a good
word. It's derived from a Hebrew word meaning to inhabit, to settle,
to dwell. And it refers to the spiritual
glory and presence of God, where God is pleased to reveal himself
to his people. And it describes the dwelling
place of the Lord, where God meets with sinners in his glory
on the basis of the shed blood poured on that mercy seat. And
that's Christ. And under the old covenant, as
I said, it was in the Holy of Holies, but that was just a type.
That was just a picture. But that's where you saw the
greatest revelation of every attribute of God. how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. I'm telling you something, if
God ever lays that question on a person's heart and gives that
person the answer to that question through the gospel of peace, that's a glorious thing. That's
the greatest thing that God could ever do for a sinner. His redemptive
character. where the Lord Jesus Christ worked
out the righteousness of God to ensure and secure the salvation
of all for whom he died and arose from the dead. And that glory
is revealed in the church under the new covenant where Christ
is the foundation, where Christ is the head, where Christ is
the heart, where Christ is the chief cornerstone of the church. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts.