Okay, turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 2. We want to look at the second
half of this chapter this morning. I've entitled this message, From
Quarry to Temple. From the quarry to the temple.
Many years ago in my working life I used to spend a lot of
time on the Isle of Portland off the south coast of England.
And it isn't really an island because if you've been there
you'll know that it's connected to the mainland by a causeway
that runs alongside that fantastic geological feature, the Chesil
Beach. It really is quite amazing when
you see it. And it's a huge great lump of unique limestone. It really is. There's nothing
quite like it anywhere in the world, the quality of the stone.
And this huge great lump, which must be, what, about three miles,
two to three miles wide at its widest point, and maybe about
five, six miles long, something like that. And at its highest
point, I would imagine it's six or seven hundred feet above sea
level at its highest point. There's a hotel right on the
top where you can stay. Brilliant views. And in the middle
of it are quarries. quarries and they look, I used
to spend a lot of time, when I used to be down there three
or four nights a week at times working with the Navy at Portland
Naval Base, I used to go for a walk, I'd have dinner and then
I'd go for a walk on the lovely sunlit summer evenings overlooking
the sea, beautiful. But there were these huge, great
big quarries in the middle of the Isle of Portland where they
would take massive blocks of stone as big as these cupboards
that we see around us. That was normal and you'd see
lorries coming out of the quarries loaded with these huge, great
lumps of stone. And the quarries themselves were
not very nice places. They were dirty and overgrown
and all sorts of machinery in various states. Now then, have
you walked around Whitehall in London? the buildings of state
down near the Houses of Parliament, the government, from Trafalgar
Square to Parliament and you pass the Old War Office and the
Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office and the Treasury and all
of these buildings are built out of Portland stone. The stone
that comes from those quarries is used in the buildings that
have the greatest honour in our land in terms of Buildings of
state. Do you know Portland Stone is
even used in the United Nations building in New York City? Even
there is Portland Stone used because of its unique quality.
I wonder if those stones sitting on the old war office in London
ever remember the quarry from which they came. Of course they
don't. They're just stones. They're not real things. But
you know the analogy I'm trying to make. I wonder if there's
any remembrance. Those stones that are so gleaming
white. I worked on the old war office
refurbishment project in the early 1990s. It was a magnificent project
inside, turning this dilapidated building into a beautiful building
of state again. It's absolutely gorgeous inside,
is the architecture and the quality of the stone. But the outside
was filthy, it was horrible. It was grey, it was black, you
know, as they used to be, stained with years and years of traffic
and smoke. and we managed to find the money
to have it stone cleaned. And it now, you go down there
now, it gleams white in the sunshine, gleaming white. I wonder if any
of those stones remember the dirty place from which they came. Now in these verses of verse
11, to 22 of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul encourages us to remember
what we were, to think on what we are now in terms of exalted
privilege and responsibility. He says, verse 11, wherefore
remember, remember You know, why do we hold the Lord's Supper?
To remember Him. Remember. It's a constant theme. Remember. Remember what you were. Remember where you've come from.
Remember what you are now. Remember how you've got here.
In terms of the exalted privilege and responsibility. You know
what John Newton once said? He said, I am not, this is as
a believer, this is a believer speaking, I am not what I ought
to be. Yes, I put my hand up to that.
I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I
really aren't. I'm not what I want to be. I'm
not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used
to be. And by the grace of God, I am
what I am. He's quoting 1 Corinthians 15
10. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Oh yes, I'm not what
I want to be. I'm not what I ought to be. I'm
not what I hope to be. But thank God because of his
grace. I'm not in that filthy dirty quarry of humanity which
knows nothing of the blessings of the salvation of God. So let's
look at these verses with a view to remembering what we were and
then what we are now in him. Look at these verses 11 to 18.
Remember what you were. or what you are if you're still
outside of Christ. If you know nothing of his salvation,
this is not what you were, this is what you are now, outside
of Christ. He talks, Paul talks in another
place about being without Christ, without God and without hope
in this world. He talks of that. Isaiah 51 verse
1 says this, hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness,
you believers, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock whence
ye are hewn. You know, you stone in the temple
of God, look to where you came from, look what you were, and
the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. You know, the hole
of that pit of sinful humanity where you were digged out of.
Verse 11, he says this, wherefore remember that ye being in time
past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by
that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. There it's there
of course in the passage, the thing I quoted earlier, it's
right there before me. But now, Remember what you were, Gentiles,
Gentiles in the flesh, Gentiles, uncircumcision. Gentiles comes
from the word, the Latin word, gens, G-E-N-S, from which we
get generations, from which we get genes, not the denim things
that you wear, but the G-E-N-E-S, the things that determine what
you are, genes, meaning the peoples. Gentiles, the peoples, the non-Israelite
tribes. This is what the Gentiles means.
You at Ephesus, he's saying, and of course us, us, we're Gentiles,
we're of those non-Israelite tribes in general. You at Ephesus
and you here today, we all descend as do all people if we read the
scriptures we all descend from Noah and his sons because you
know God destroyed the rest of the world there was just Noah
and his three sons and the wives of the four of them eight in
all is all that we read of going into the ark and from them came
all the peoples of the earth today and we're of those genes
of those Gentiles of those peoples But out of that, in time, God
chose Abraham and called him out. Abraham had two sons. Ishmael and Isaac. But God said,
in Isaac shall the seed be called. And the seed is a seed with a
capital S. And the seed is the promised
seed of the woman which would come to redeem his people. That
seed of the woman, not of the flesh, not of the fall of Adam,
not of the sin of Adam, but that one who was the seed of the woman,
born of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ who would come.
It was in that line that he would come. But he's saying to them,
you and we are by nature out of that line. We're of the peoples,
the Gentiles, who are outside of the godly line. The godly
line, go right back to Adam and Eve. And you know there was Cain
and Abel, and Cain slew Abel. Because Abel was in that line.
Cain slew him. And then they had another son
amongst the many that they had, Seth. And people called on the
name of the Lord. And that godly line, that line
of people who looked for the Saviour to come, who worshipped
God in the Spirit, who looked to Christ, whose worship and
sacrifices were all based in Christ, Seth, and Noah, and Abram,
and Moses, and David, and the prophets, and John the Baptist,
and the apostles. It's the line of the knowledge
of the gospel of Christ. All of them. That line of the
knowledge of the gospel of Christ. That line. But the Gentiles,
you are outside of it. You don't have those privileges.
What privileges am I talking about? Turn back to Romans chapter
3, and the first two verses. Romans chapter three in the first
two verses you've heard me say many times that in this gospel
age there is no difference whatsoever between the Jews and the Gentiles
there is only one way of salvation so Paul asked the question in
chapter three of Romans verse one what advantage then hath
the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision Oh, none whatsoever. No, he doesn't say that. Much,
every way. Chiefly, because unto them were
committed the oracles of God. This little nation, whom God
loved because he loved them, out of sovereign grace, not because
they were greater or bigger, Deuteronomy 7, I think it is. I didn't love you because you
were bigger or stronger. I loved you because I loved you,
he says to this little nation. And to them, out of all the Gentiles
of the world, all of the gene pool of the world, all of the
other peoples of the world, to them were given the oracles of
God, the word of God, the revelation of God. When you spend time with
people who know nothing of these things, however much you love
them and care for them, how dark and how blind is their blindness
of spiritual things what a glorious blessing it is to have the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
what a glorious stable foundation what an anchor for the soul that
is in all of the turmoil of life what an anchor for the soul it
is to be in the Lord Jesus Christ what a privilege what a blessing
You know, as we were reading earlier, man is like the grass
of the field. He grows, he flowers, he blooms,
he flourishes, and he withers, and he dies, and he's cast into
the furnace to be burned. We didn't have one this year,
but we usually have a whopping great bonfire in the garden in October,
November time to burn up the dross of the year. And that's
what the picture is. flower of the field, flourishing
and then falling away and dying. And that's what we're like by
nature. That's what we're like. But what a glorious, blessed
thing it is to know that you're in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes,
there was much advantage every way in being the Jews, but so
many of them, the majority of them, scorned it, turned to idols,
looked the other way, didn't heed the promises of God, didn't
heed the warnings of God, didn't heed the instruction of God,
didn't walk with God. They were not people after God's
own heart as David had been and others. A remnant according to
the election of grace was always there. Even when Elijah said,
Even I only am left a prophet of the Lord. God said to me,
I have reserved me my 7,000, my perfect completeness of people
who have not bowed the knee to Baal, to this false idolatry,
to this false religion. They look down their noses, the
Jews, at Gentile dogs. scum of the earth, dogs, they're
just dogs, they've got no standing, they've got no knowledge of truth,
of creation, of the god of the universe, of the god of life
and of eternity, they've no knowledge of him, they're gentile dogs,
they're uncircumcised, they used to call them, the circumcision
in the flesh made with hands, the Jews used to call them, oh
they're uncircumcised, a pejorative term, not fit to have anything
to do with. That lot from that estate down
there that we don't want to mix with. Uncircumcised. You see
circumcision was a symbol of the covenant that God made with
Abraham. It was a symbol of the covenant,
of the putting off of the deeds of the flesh, of the putting
off of the sin of the flesh. It was a physical symbol, a symbol
of cutting off flesh in commitment to God. It was an outward sign
of the covenant. It was a fleshly sign of what
should have been a heart change, because again and again the scriptures
talk about circumcise your hearts, not your flesh, your hearts,
the inner you, the inner you. Look at Romans 2. Romans 2 verses
25 to 29, I think it's just before what we read, isn't it? Romans
2.25, for circumcision, this outward sign, verily profiteth
if you keep the law. But if you be a breaker of the
law, you know, because it was a sign of the law, the covenant
of the law, the covenant of... this is what it was, it was a
sign of do this and live this is what it was a sign of, yes
I'm committed to put off the works of the flesh the works
of sin, well if you do it, fine but if you're a breaker of the
law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision Therefore, if
the uncircumcision, that's the Gentiles, keep the righteousness
of the law, which of course they don't, I'm putting in parentheses
there, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
In other words, it's not just the outward thing you do, it's
the inward heart thing that happens, the inward heart thing that makes
the difference. If the one who doesn't have this outward sign,
does that which the covenant requires, then in truth he is
more circumcised than the one who calls himself circumcised.
And shall not the uncircumcision, which is by nature, that's the
Gentiles, if it fulfilled the law, judge thee, who by the letter
and circumcision does transgress the law? For he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly, You don't just have to be a descendant
from Abraham to be a Jew. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. Oh, surely it is, isn't it? No,
no. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. in the spirit, and not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men. Oh, aren't you being a good
religious person? Aren't you doing all the right
religious things? Aren't you going through all the right ceremonies?
No, his praise is not of men. His praise is of God. But he
says to these people, you were Gentiles, you were uncertain,
in every respect you were outside of these things. Verse 12, in
that time you were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world, strangers to Christ and
his grace. They hadn't even heard, we hadn't,
I hadn't even heard of the sweet doctrines of His grace to sinners. I'd never heard of it. I'd seen
a lot of religion, but I'd never heard. I was a stranger. I was
outside of Christ. I was an alien. I was a foreigner
from the Commonwealth of Israel. I wasn't a member. I wasn't a
citizen. I was on the outside. I had no
experience of those sweet doctrines of grace to sinners. Those sweet
doctrines that cause me, whatever my deep worries are, to lay me
down and sleep, Psalm 4. Lay me down and sleep peacefully,
for I know where I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know whom
I have believed. and that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. I know these
things and therefore I'm able to sleep peacefully. I had no
knowledge of those things. That's the experience of the
children of God, to know peace with God, to know the peace of
God, which passes all understanding. You know, talking of citizenship,
I sometimes wonder how it is we all do who live in this country
and are used to it and have known nothing else and we can always
see the bad things but there are, as we know, thousands upon
thousands of people in oppressed regimes around the world and
their one ambition They're overriding ambition. As far as they're concerned,
the promised land and everything good is all determined by this,
if they can but get to Britain. If they could arrive in this
country, I don't know why they don't stop a bit shorter. There's
plenty of other places with prosperity. But they want to come here because
if they come here they get all the blessings of citizenship.
And you think, why? We live here, we know it. But
we always fail to count our blessings and our freedoms and our liberties.
But there are people who long to be here. outside of Christ. You have none of these blessings
but in Christ. All the blessings that there
are of being in Him. Being in Him. See, they're without
hope, having no hope. They're bound in hopeless fear. And what's the fear that all
peoples live in? Hebrews 2, 15 tells us, them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage and they put it off and they make silly statements. to try and convince themselves
that it doesn't apply to them and that they are going to escape
it. But we know it's appointed to man to die once and then the
judgment, after this the judgment. The judgment comes and it's a
dreadful thing, a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the
living God for our God. is a consuming fire who though
he's merciful and delights to mercy yet he's just and his justice
cannot be swept under the carpet it must be upheld and in upholding
his justice he must punish sin for the soul that sins it shall
die no hope no hope without God in the world the picture is this
rough ugly, uncut stones. You know, some of those beautiful,
gleaming white stones that you now see on the buildings of State
in London. Those glorious stones. You look
down in those quarries on the Isle of Portland, you don't see
glorious, white, gleaming stones. Not at all. You see rough, ugly,
uncut, dirty stones. You see them buried in the quarry.
And so it is. We, by nature, Gentiles, buried
in the quarry of fallen humanity. As we are, by nature, children
of wrath, which is what the first half of this chapter said, even
as others, as all the rest, children of wrath, but now. But now. Verse 13. Don't you love the
but nows of scripture? But now. in Christ Jesus ye who
were who sometimes were at a time were far off are made nigh made
near by the blood of Christ you who were far off turn with me
to 1 Kings chapter 5 and verses 17 and 18 1 Kings chapter 5 and
verses 17 and 18 Because there we read the account
of Solomon, King Solomon, the son of King David, commissioning
and undertaking the work of building the temple. You know David wanted
to build a house of God. And God withheld that from him
and said, your son will build the temple in your place. And
these verses say this, 1 Kings, did I say 1 Kings chapter 5?
I did, did I? 1 Kings chapter 5, 17 and 18. And the king commanded, that's
Solomon. And they brought great stones, costly stones, and huge
stones to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders
and Hiram's builders did hew them, did cut them out. And the
stone squarers, they cut the stones to shape so that when
they were taken to Jerusalem, they would all fit together perfectly
to build the temple. It wasn't left to chance. the
stone square has cut them. So they prepared timber and stones
to build the house." Do you know it's on that verse and verses
like it that the whole of the Freemason movement gets its its
foundation. Hiram is the one that they revere,
Hiram Habib or something like that as the master builder who
built the house and there's a sort of a pseudo-religious aspect
to it and it's all built on that but this is talking about the
temple being built in Jerusalem. Now look at Ephesians chapter
2, just turn over, we'll just jump ahead to verses 20 and 21
and you remember what we read earlier in 1 Peter chapter 2
He says this, that now your members of the household of God, in verse
20, and are built, you people, he's saying, you who believe,
are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in
the Lord, just as those stones and wood of 1 Kings 5 were brought
together to build a literal physical temple in Jerusalem to the glory
of God so he says you living stones brought together cut out
of the quarry of Gentile humanity of that fallen godless no hope
humanity and are prepared to be built together and holy temple
verse 13 but now In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now that faith has opened
your eyes, now that faith, because we know where faith comes from,
look back a few verses, by grace are ye saved, through faith,
and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. That God
gift of faith has opened the eyes of your soul to see the
truth of salvation, to see where you are in Christ, to see that
I'm in Christ. Well, if I'm in Christ, I lived
with Him. I kept God's law in Him. So when
I'm called to account for that holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord, I have Christ's holiness, righteousness as my
cloak, as my robe, as my seamless robe of righteousness, as my
wedding garment at the marriage supper of the Lamb. that I'm
clothed with that that when he died to pay the penalty of sins
it was my sin with which he was loaded and I died says Paul in
Galatians chapter 2 I am crucified with Christ I died with him Oh,
the soul that sins, it shall die. I died with Him at the cross
of Calvary. I am crucified with Christ. Ah,
did I stay there? No, my Savior rose from the dead. He rose and is ascended on high
and is seated in heavenly places. So where am I? I rose with Him. I rose in Him. I ascended with
Him. But I'm here now. But in the
reckoning of God, I'm there in heaven, seated in heavenly places
in Him. I was once separated by a distance. You who were are far off. Oh
how far, how dark, how distant is that mind alienated from the
glorious, blessed, gracious truths of salvation in Christ. How far
away it is. You who once were far off are
now made near. You're brought near by the blood
of Christ. You're brought near by the blood
of Christ. You see, you were far away, but
now you're brought near by blood. How does blood bring you near?
Your sins have separated you, says the Scriptures, from God.
He cannot look upon sin. The soul that sins, it must die.
He cannot tolerate. He's a purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. But blood has paid the price.
Blood has cleansed. That crimson flow of blood has
washed your sins though they be as scarlet, as white as snow,
as Isaiah says. The blood of Christ has cleansed
us from all sin. Isn't that what the scripture
says? There are many who live, who call themselves Christians,
who seem to think that the blood of Christ has cleansed a bit
of my sin. No, the blood of Christ has cleansed all our sins, all
our sins. My sin, not in part, but the
whole. The bliss of this glorious thought,
my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross
and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. And verse 14, for he, Christ,
is our peace. He is our peace. He hasn't just
made peace. He is our peace. Who hath made
both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of petition between
us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain,
of two. one new man, so making peace,
and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. Christ is our peace. Now what
do these verses mean? Christ is our peace. Christ is
the peace of both those that were the natural children, the
children of Jewish descent, of the lineage of Abram and Moses
and David and so on and so forth, the natural children who are
the remnant according to the election of grace, and those
who are the Gentiles and the uncircumcision by nature and
the people whom he calls and has been calling down the millennia. These are the people. He's made
both one, Jews and Gentiles and there is no other peace. There
is no other basis of peace. John chapter 10 and verse 16
Jesus says this other sheep I have which are not of this Jewish
fold I put the word Jewish in there them also must I bring
the Gentiles must I bring and they shall hear my voice and
there shall be one fold and one shepherd there isn't a Jewish
shepherd and a Gentile shepherd there's one fold and one shepherd
I believe there are some enormously erroneous views in what calls
itself the Christian world. And as I've said, you've heard
me say before, I believe that it has led to and is leading
to a political disaster in the Middle East. There are all sorts
of problems going on because of an erroneous view about this
situation. There is this view that you can
become a child of God by belief in Christ, or you happen to be
born a Jew and you'll be saved anyway. I don't believe that's
the case. I do believe the scriptures indicate
that there might be a great gathering in of those of Jewish descent,
but no one must presume. No one at all. I don't see anything
that says everybody that reckons he was born a Jew is going to
be saved at some final moment so he lives a life of debauchery
and whatever else he wants to do because it doesn't matter,
because he's a Jew he'll be saved anyway. That's presumption and
that is a road leading to hell. That's all that that is. There
are no more advantages to the Jews. There's only one basis
of acceptance with God, and it's this. It's in the Lord Jesus
Christ for the enmity that was there, the separation that was
there, the superiority that the Jews thought was there. For example,
imagine, you think back, it's perfectly clear in Gospel of
John. chapter four, the Samaritan woman. The Jews despised the
Samaritans because the Samaritans were essentially the ten northern
tribes of the kingdom of Israel that split from Judah in the
south. And Judah retained the elements,
the essence, and in general retained the worship of God with all sorts
of lapses. But the northern kingdoms were
overrun by Assyria and they were completely intermingled and as
far as the Jews were concerned they'd become a mongrel race.
They were no longer pure tribal Israel people. They were to be despised. Jews
had nothing to do with Samaritans. They were that branch of the
family that you had nothing to do with. And you know, there
was enmity between them. You can see it in the dialogue
between Jesus and the woman. She immediately says, you being
a Jew, why are you talking to me who am a Samaritan? You know,
Jews don't have anything to do with Samaritans. But what this
is saying is that that enmity, that there always is between
those who think that they're of the covenant of law, the covenant
of works, and that they keep it because they've got their
traditions, and they despise those that are outside of it,
who are Samaritans or Gentiles in general. He says he's taken
it away. He's taken that enmity away. He's blotted it out. Why? Because there's only one way
of being right with God. And that is Christ the sinner's
substitute came and stood in the place of every single one
of his elect. And his elect, that multitude
that no man can number from every, what does Revelation say? Every
tribe and kindred and people. Not Jews. not this people, not
those of that tribe, every tribe and tongue and kindred. He chooses
his people out and he's taken that enmity away because he is
the only one who ever kept any covenant. He is the only one
who walked perfectly before the law of God. He who was born of
a woman was born under the law to redeem those who are under
the law. He did that for his people, whatever ethnic origin
they come from. There is no division, there is
no distinction. Colossians 2.14 says that he
blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, that's the law, that
was against us. And what did he do with it? That
handwriting? of ordinances that was against
us. What did he do? He nailed it to his cross. When
he was nailed to his cross, that handwriting of law that condemns
the sinner and says the soul that sins it, he nailed it to
the cross so that there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh
but according to the Spirit. So neither is better nor worse
than the other. There's only one way of salvation. As Isaiah cries out in chapter
57, he talks about the fruit of the lips, the preaching, and
it's peace, peace to him afar off Gentiles. This is Isaiah
writing. In the Jewish era, 800 years
or more before Christ, peace, peace to him that is afar off
and to him that is near. And it's through Christ, verse
18, through Christ, access. He came and preached peace to
you which were afar off and to them that were near. For through
him, we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. What
a glorious, honestly, I'm sure preachers who are much
better orators than me could dig into that. There might be
a Spurgeon sermon somewhere where he's dug into it. But you look
at the concentration of eternal truth that's there. Through him,
through Christ, we, both Jews and Gentiles, have access. Is this not what we want? Is
this not what we need for eternity? Peace with God, the presence
of God, God to be our God, and we to be his people, to be accepted
in the beloved, to be called into his presence. Through him,
through Christ, we both, Jews and Gentiles, have access by
one spirit unto the Father. Is that not where you want to
be? Show us the Father and that suffices us, said Philip. Philip,
have I been so long with you and yet you have not seen me?
He who has seen me, Christ, has seen the Father, for by the Spirit
we have access to the Father through Christ. Now therefore,
now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints. Remember, stones cut out of the
quarry, glistening in the sun in that glorious building of
state. in the united nations in new york or wherever it is
in a place taken from that dirtiest hole in the ground on the isle
of portland of southern england and in that glorious place of
honor glistening in the sunshine glistening this is this is the
picture you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens
and saints and of the household of god you know the doors of
immigration has let you in with full honors You're counted, it
says somewhere else, is it Colossians? He says he's qualified us. He's
made us meet to be there. He has made us meet to be there
by what he has done in salvation. And he's made us citizens of
a city. Citizens of a city and living
stones in a temple. He's given us privileges. the
privileges of citizenship, the responsibilities of citizenship
as well. Don't forget that. This is not
a burden of works, but this is the truth. The child of God,
the one who's made a citizen, will want to live there, will
want to honor the king of the city. I did an illustration some
time ago about trooping of the color. Does the soldier go on
that parade ground for fear of the punishment that he'll be
put on if his boots are not polished and his medals and his buttons
polished? Of course not. He polishes his boots and his
buttons and he stands in line and does it perfectly for love
and honor of the regiment, to be chosen to troop the color
before the monarch as a symbol of the nation. He's proud of
the fact that he's been chosen out to do that. That's the motivation
for the child of God, to live right, to bear fruit, to bring
glory to God. He's not sewing on patches of
his own self-righteousness, not at all. responsibilities of this
citizenship. And we're built, verse 20, built
upon a foundation. What's the foundation? It's the
apostles and the prophets. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute.
Just a minute. No, it's the same foundation
as the Apostles and the Prophets. We're only built on the Apostles
and the Prophets, the words of the Apostles, the Apostles' doctrine.
We're only built on that, not because they as men determined,
because they are built on the foundation which is Christ Jesus.
That's the only reason that we're built on the apostles and the
prophets. We're not built because they were sinless men, because
they weren't. We know they weren't. We're built
on them because they were built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
And his word came through them. They were the under-shepherds
who spoke the word of Christ, the true shepherd, and brought
his word. And we're built on that foundation.
This building, this glorious, holy temple, built out of living
stones, is built on him. that same foundation. Behold,
I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a trident, a stone, a precious
cornerstone, as Isaiah wrote, a sure foundation. He that believeth,
it says, shall not make haste. That's what the Isaiah one says.
He shall not make haste, which Peter quotes when he quotes in
1 Peter 2 verse 5, shall not be confounded in the judgment,
shall not be ashamed in the judgment. And there's no other foundation.
There cannot be. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3.11,
For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid,
which is Christ Jesus. It's not the apostles, no other
foundation than him. This letter was written to the
Ephesians, and in Ephesus was one of what we call the seven
wonders of the world, which was the temple of Artemis, or the
temple of Diana, as it was sort of commonly known, the goddess
Diana, this false idolatrous goddess Diana. And it was a glorious
building, and look it up online, put the Temple of Diana at Ephesus
into Google and you'll see all sorts of things about what the
archaeologists thought it looked like. And it was reckoned to
be one of the seven wonders of the world. Worldly magnificence.
All of its religion. And he's writing to them. And
there it is in their midst. They could go and look at it
in much better condition than any remains of it are today.
He could look at that and see it. You've been, haven't you?
You've been there. You've been to the very site. Right. Yeah.
Well, he's contrasting that with the Holy Temple, which is in
Christ. And that Holy Temple is the Church
of Jesus Christ. Not a building made with hands.
Paul reminds each believer that they individually are the Temple
of the Holy Spirit, doesn't he? Writing in 1 Corinthians, he
says, Know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you? You're a templar, so don't defile
it. Even now, people get very, very superstitious about the
sort of things you can do in one of our Anglican cathedrals
in this country. Oh, be careful, you're treading
on holy ground. Don't worry. I admire them as pieces of architecture. I admire them as emblems of the
skill of people, but they have no religious significance whatsoever,
none whatsoever. Paul reminds them that their
bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that the church,
verse 22, is individual stones. Do you remember we read in 1
Kings about Hiram and his stone squarers? Squaring them off.
Knocking off all the bits that didn't look like a stone that
would fit in the temple. The stone squarers. Fitting them
for that purpose of being built into that temple. Paul reminds
them, each one, they're stones in the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Individual stones, a habitation of God, he says here, through
the Spirit. You see, it isn't the stones
and the building materials, you know, oh, I think this is a,
this, you hear people today, this cathedral is to the glory
of God and I just get a sense of his Spirit when I'm here and
it's a place where I'm, no, no, no. It's the hearts of his believers
where God is. That's where he resides. That's
where he dwells. As we read in Peter, ye also,
1 Peter 2, 5, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual
house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, and he repeats what Isaiah says. This cornerstone,
this chief cornerstone, it's a foretaste on earth of heavenly
glory. Revelation chapter 21 verses
2 and 3, And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And I heard, you see, a city.
a city with everything, built, a city built. This is the bride
of Christ coming down out of heaven. And I heard a great voice
out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men. That's an amazing thing. The
tabernacle of the holy God who cannot look upon sin is now with
man, who was sinful, who is by nature sinful, but made fit for
the presence of God and he will dwell with them and they shall
be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their
God and so think on these things next time you see any of those
magnificent buildings with their Portland stone gleaming white
think of where those stones came from and then think about you
think about the privileged position that you're in as the children
of God if you're truly a child of God think of that privileged
position Think of how that stone squarer of the gospel has come
and cut you and prepared you to fit you into that temple of
the living God. Think of those things. Think
of how blessed we are with the grace of God, the blessings of
the gospel. Think of the honor and the privilege,
the prospect and the hope and the responsibility that is yours
and that is mine. And if you're outside of Christ,
think of where you are now. Think of what you're going to
do. Think of what it's going to be like for you if you remain
outside of Christ. Think what a fearful and dreadful
day that that will be when God says today is the day this night
your soul shall be required of you.