I invite you to turn back with
me now to Ephesians 2. And I hope by the grace of God
to be able to talk to you this morning a little bit about the
house of God. The house of God. Sometimes in
the Scriptures, the house of God is used to describe the meeting
place. We've gathered here this morning
and we meet in this place, and sometimes the Scriptures call
that place where the saints gather to worship the house of God.
David said this, he said, a day in thy courts, and he was talking
about those courts in that royal temple, that courts in the old
tabernacle. A day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. He said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper.
in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."
I'd rather be a doorkeeper. And then sometimes the house
of God has to do with heaven itself. Our Lord said, in my
Father's house, where's that at? That's in heaven. Our many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. A place in God's house. for you."
And then sometimes the phrase, house of God, refers to God's
church, His redeemed, His people. In Hebrews 3, verse 6, He said,
but Christ as a Son over His own house, about His church,
whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. Now, I want to speak to you this
morning in figurative language. You know, Nicodemus, our Lord
came to Nicodemus, that wise man, that great teacher of the
Jews who sat under Gamaliel. And he was something else. He was a very learned, very respected
man. And the Lord said, Nicodemus,
he said, you must be born again. And Nicodemus in his wisdom and
pride and arrogancy, he turned to the Lord and he said, are
you saying I have to crawl back up in my mother's womb and be
born again? How can these things be? He said,
Nicodemus, he said, if I've told you, are you an elder? Are you
a master of theology and you don't know what I'm talking about?
He said, I talk to you in earthly terms, and that's what I'm going
to try to do this morning. The Bible is filled with earthly
terms, and we try to take those terms and take them literally.
They're not to be taken literally. They're to be taken figuratively.
You remember old Solomon, he was going to build God a house.
And God said, how are you going to build me a house? The heavens can't contain me.
You going to build me a house? It's figurative language. And
our Lord was speaking to Nicodemus in figurative language. Now,
if He said, if I were to talk to you in heavenly terms, what
would you have done? You wouldn't have understood anything. But
I'm condescending. I'm coming down on your level. And I'm telling you some things. And that's what I want to do
this morning in figurative language. I want to talk about this house,
this house of God. And I know this about a house.
It has to be built. It has to be built. There are
no natural houses. I thought about this as I was
studying this message. God didn't create a house in
the garden. He didn't create a house. There
was no need for a house, was there? There was no rain, no
pests, no predators, no thieves, no robbers. What need of there
was for a house? But houses are something that
become necessities after the fall. That's when houses come
to be, after the fall. Well, what is a house? Well,
old Daniel Webster says, a house is a building designed to be
occupied as a shelter. That's what it is. It's a place
of protection from the elements and from predators and from your
enemies. Also, a house affords certain
comfort warmth and safety and peace of mind, pleasure. And
time permitting this morning, I have four things I want you
to see concerning this house of God. The house has to be built. It has to be built. All right. First of all, I want you to see
this, that every house begins with a design. It begins with
a design. And that's where Paul begins
back over in Ephesians chapter 1. He begins with a design of
God. God's doing these things for
His glory. He's doing these things for His
glory. God has something in mind. Salvation's not an afterthought
of God. Salvation is something that God
has purposed from the beginning. And this house that Paul's talking
to them about, which God's going to build, This house, he said,
has to be built, and it's according to God's design. You remember
when Moses went up on the mountain a second time. Israel had broken
the law of God, and he cast the stones down and broke them. And
he went back up on the mountain, and God wrote those laws anew
with His finger. He wrote in those tables of stone.
And then He gave him a pattern to build a tabernacle before
He sent him back down. No need to send him down with
the same law that they broke and they'd break it again. But
he sent him back down with a pattern to a tabernacle where that law
could be honored, where that law could be exalted, and where
that law wouldn't curse the children of Israel. But satisfied under
that blood atonement, they could be saved. And he sent him down
with that pattern and he said, now you see to it when you build
this thing, you see to it that you build it exactly the way
I gave you that pattern in the mountain. You build it according
to my design. Our ministry in this world is
not left to our imagination. God has a design. And one of
the last projects I did for the company I worked for up in Kentucky
was to build a really nice log home for my two owners of the
company. And the plans came from an old
and well-known manufacturer. And they included provisions
which I would have never thought of. I've built houses all my
life, but they're not log cabins. And these log cabins were something
totally different. And in this design, they called
for pieces of all-thread, like a giant eight-, nine-foot bolt
that went all the way down through those logs and had a big spring
on the bottom. And you put that on and some
washers and a nut, and you tighten it all down. And as those logs
shrank over the first two or three years, you'd go down there
and tighten that thing up and keep pulling that thing tight.
What I'm trying to tell you is I'd have never thought of those
things. I'd have never. But provision was made in the
design for everything possible concerning that cabin. And that's
the way it is when this thing of building God's house, he's
already taken everything into account. And it's designed. He has a design in mind for this
house. God's house is of eternal design,
and every conceivable problem has been taken into account,
every problem and every enemy and every weakness. In Christ,
He said, we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. And we find even in the crucifixion
of Christ, over there in the book of Acts, and all of these
strange governments. Here's the Romans who despised
the Jews, and here's the Jews who despised the Romans, and
here's the Gentiles. And they didn't really like either
one of them. And they all got together. They
all got together. and crucified the Lord. They
all got together and they voted to kill Him. They went right
along with everything that took place on that day. And when they
did it, here's what it says over in Acts. They did what God's
hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. And it's the
same thing toward this house. We're predestinated. That's what
Paul tells us over here in Ephesians 1. We're predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will." And believers know this. Over in Romans 8,
Paul said, and we know that all things work together. For good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. that
He might be the firstborn among many brethrens. And moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What are we going to say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can be
against us? God's house is not built upon
chance and circumstance, But like that old temple, everything
was chosen and fit by divine counsel and design. They shaped
those cedars before they ever sent them. And they brought them
over and they fit right in the temple. Fit right in there. All of the people and all of
the means and all of creation and all of providence, it runs
exactly as God orders it. And exactly according to His
counsel. Listen to these scriptures. God
hath from the beginning chosen you. We know there's an Antichrist
in the world. That spirit of Antichrist was
here even back in the days of the apostles. He does already
work. We know that he's here. We know that false religion's
here. We know we have enemies here. But God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. And these things can't hinder
that. whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God's house has a design. It's an eternal design. It's
an all-wise design. It's a design that can't be improved
on. This is 2014. Why are we still following those
old means and things that the apostles used back there right
after the death of Christ? Because they can't be improved
on. That's why. They can't be improved on. And then the second thing I want
you to see is that a house must be built. Houses don't evolve. They don't suddenly appear. They
don't grow up out of the ground. Houses have to be built. Turn
with me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. A house must be built. We're up here working on this
new building. You know what? It has to be built. We don't
go up until Thursday, and we've been trying to work Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday on it. We go up on Thursday, nothing's
been done since last Saturday. It didn't evolve a bit, did it?
This is exactly the way we left it. It has to be built. Now watch
this. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9. Paul said, For we are labors
together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, that
is, you are His garden, and ye are God's building. And according
to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth there. For other
foundation can no man lay than that which is lay." There's a
builder. There's builders in vain. A house
must be built. It has to be put together. In
Proverbs 24, verse 3, listen to this. Here's what the wise
man says. Here's what Solomon says. Through
wisdom is a house built. Through wisdom. And by understanding,
it is established. God's house is a spiritual house,
and it's built according to the revelation of God in Christ. And as lively stones, Peter said,
you are built up a spiritual house. There's building involved. Building involved. And my grand
faith hears, it perceives, it understands the gospel of Christ.
I don't understand the origin of God. Men sit around and debate
about the origin of God, or how God was made flesh, or how a
lot of things came to be. I just believe God. I believe
the Word of God, the testimony of God. But I'm talking about
here, when I'm talking about this house being built, I'm talking
about how a holy God can forgive sin and still be God. How God
can be just. and justifier. I'm talking about
why a ruined and depraved sinner can be arrested. How can this
man be arrested on his way to hell and be turned to the true
and living God? There's understanding involved.
There's wisdom involved in this building of this hope, our house. I'm talking about how God has
set forth His Son as the propitiation for our sins. And this is how
God's house is built. It's put together. It's put together. Old Noah, he'd fashion that wood
exactly as God told him to. Take that little foot ad or broad
axe or whatever he had and he'd hew away on that wood. And then
he'd give it to his son and he'd say, now here's where it goes.
And the boy would take it over there and he'd put it in there,
his son-in-law. And they'd fashion that thing
in exactly the way. And he just kept supplying the
parts, and they kept going over there and putting them in the
place where they went. God's house is built, it's put
together, it's fashioned together, and it's put together by wisdom
and understanding. Brian and I went over and got
a load of lumber the other day for the new building. And when
we were unloading the lumber, Brian said, what's them two batons
for? Where are they going to go? And
I said, well, we're tearing out that wall in the kitchen. That's
for a beam that's going to go replace the wall. Well, what's
those 2x6's for? Well, they go over here in another
place. Well, what's these 2x12's for? Where do they go? You see what
I'm saying? When I preach the gospel to you,
I'm not always on the same subject. Sometimes I'm talking about the
righteousness of Christ, the atonement of Christ. the condescension
of Christ, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Sometimes
I talk to you about the hope of His return. I talk to you
about Him seated upon the throne as our Lord. These are all pieces
and parts to this house. And we see these things. Well,
where do these things go? And I try to tell you where they
go. And I try to describe them. I try to set them out before
you. Preaching is the means that supplies what's needed to build
the house. It takes the materials from the
Word of God and it tells us what these materials are for. Here's
the floor. This is a window. This is a ceiling
joist. This is a rafter. These are parts
for this house. Old Noah hewed out those timbers
and gave them to his children and told them what he's for.
He's building a house. He's building a house for a new
world. That house didn't have any bearing on the world he lived
in. It never rained. It never rained. As far as I know, there wasn't
a lake. He built a house that had no
application for this world whatsoever. He was building a house for a
new world. He was building a house to withstand
the judgment of God and one that would survive everything that
came its way. What kind of house are you building?
Huh? What kind of house are you building?
Are you building a house for this world or for that one to
come? What kind of house are we building?
Is it sufficient to survive the trials and troubles of this world?
Is it sufficient to pass through the judgment of God? Houses must
be built, and those who build them must follow God's design,
and they must use the material He provides. And then thirdly,
a strong house requires a solid foundation. I tell you, I've
had folks get mad at me and say, just forget it. You ain't building
my house, because I insist on a solid foundation. I'm not going
to waste my time building something. I'm going to come back in a few
years and the roof looks like this and the doors are all leaning
sideways. I'm going to take my time and
do it right. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
7. A strong house begins with a solid
foundation. Over in Matthew chapter 7 verse
21, listen to what our Lord says here. I want you to see the context. Everybody in here has heard what
I'm going to work my way down to, but you haven't heard the
first part. So just listen to the context.
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now watch this. Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I liken
him unto a wise man which built his house on a rock. Oh, he's
talking about our hope. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about this gospel he preached. You listen to what
I'm saying. And you submit to what I'm saying. And you receive what I'm saying.
And I liken you unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended. And the
floods came. And the winds blew. And they
beat upon that house. And it fell not. For it was founded
upon a rock. And to every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, says, that's foolishness. Say, well, I don't believe that.
I don't see how that can be. It don't seem right to me. To every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, should be like a nun to
a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the
rain descended. And the floods came, and the
winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell. And
great was the fall of it. A strong house requires a solid
foundation. And Paul said, as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation. But let every man take heed how
he builds on it. For other foundations can no
man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. This is
the stone. This is the stone, Peter said,
which you religious builders have culled out and set aside.
This is the stone which is made of God, the head of the corner.
But it's made a stone of stumbling unto you. This is the stone upon which
God will build His church. And Peter said, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. We're built, Ephesians
2 verse 20, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. That old hymn
writer said, my hope is built. That's what we're talking about
this morning. I hope. This house. This house of God. He said, My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ's solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. God's house begins with an eternal
design and it's built, it's fitly framed together, he tells us
over here in Ephesians 2. Built with wisdom and understanding,
built according to the revelation of God through His Spirit and
the preaching of the Gospel. And God's house is built upon
a sure foundation, built upon the rock, Christ Jesus. And then
lastly, I want you to think about this. God's house is a work in
progress. It's a work in progress. In our
text over in Ephesians 2.21, Paul said, it groweth. You see
that? It groweth unto a holy temple
in the Lord. Let me tell you something. There's a time when you had no
faith. Some of you in here truly believe.
But there was a time when you didn't. When you had no faith. There was a time when God called
you to life eternal. And as an infant was found in
its mother's womb, so He planted His seed spiritually in you and
I, and we were born of God. And this birth is a one-time
event. It only happens once. I told the folks in Sunday school
class this morning, you're not born again and again and again.
You're just born again one time. And in this birth, you're equipped
with ears and eyes and feet and hands. You have a mind. You have
an understanding, you have a body, you have senses. Everything you
need is given to you in birth. But that's not how you were designed
to stay. God didn't design this house
just at the beginning of it and then leave the rest of it alone. I'd be a little disappointed
if my child never grew out of infancy. And I drive out here
and I see a sign. Going down the road and I see
a sign, future site of this or that. And then weeks and months
go by and I go back out and the sign's still sitting there. Future
site of. But I look over there and there
ain't no dirt turned. Ain't no foundation dug. Ain't
no blocks laid. Ain't no concrete poured. And
I wait a few more weeks and I go back out and I look at it and
it looks just like it did the first time I went by. No workers
came out to the site. No lumber is delivered. No ground
is broken. There's no activity. They're
just a sign talking about it. And that's how folks are who've
made false professions of faith. It's just a sign talking about
it. There's no activity. There's
no ground being broke. There's no foundation being laid.
There's no building coming up. There's no activity on the lot.
There's no workers involved. We're fellow laborers with God,
Paul said. There's work involved in this
building. There's just a sign talking about it. Something's
wrong. Something's wrong. Where God
lays his foundation, he builds the house. And where he builds
the house, there's activity. Workers are chosen and sent.
Materials brought and delivered to the site. Progress is made.
Changes are apparent. We're God's building. Well, God's built. Well, he said there, he talks
over there in one place, he said, now, you better sit down and
count the cost. See if you got enough to finish
this house. See if you got sufficient to finish it. Otherwise, you'll
get it halfway up and people will laugh at you. They'll laugh
at you. And He ain't talking about looking
in here to see what you got. He's talking about looking to
Christ. Looking to your hope. Look to this hope in Christ.
Is He sufficient? And I'll tell you one more thing
about this house, and I'll wind this thing up. Where God builds
the house, He dwells in it. He dwells in it. Isn't that what
Scripture said? How does he say that there in
Ephesians 2 in that last verse? A fit habitation for the Lord. God dwells in the house He builds.
Paul said we are laborers together with God. And God is the Lord
over His house. I'll tell you that. He rules
and reigns over His house. The Lord dictated what happened
in that temple. He decides all that's done in
his house, and God is the security of his house. Ain't nothing coming in that
house. The strongest man there is occupied that house. And God overthrew him. Now who
else is going to come in? He overthrew the strong man,
spoiled his goods. And He rules over that house.
He's the security of that house. And I'll tell you something else,
God's the joy of that house. We joy in Him. We rejoice in
Him. And without His presence, it'd
just be another house, wouldn't it? And God's the builder of His
house. Listen to this verse over in Hebrews 3. He said, Christ
was counted more worthy He's worthy of more glory than Moses
inasmuch as he who hath builted the house hath more glory than
the house. He's the glory of the house.
He's the glory of it. And I tell you this, He's the
rest in it. He's the rest in it. May the
Lord be pleased to take these things that I've said this morning
and help you to realize what this hope is. This hope is like
a house. It's a shelter. It's a refuge. It's a place of security from
your enemies. And the only thing that makes
this house the house of God is His presence in it. And His presence
is in it in Christ. That's our hope.