We're going to finish this chapter
this morning. Ephesians chapter 3, and I just want you to read.
Well, let's begin again in verse 18. Ephesians chapter 2. In verse 18, we're finishing
the second chapter. Ephesians chapter 2. And through Him, for through
Him, in Him, through Him, by Him, because of Him, We both
have access by one Spirit into the Father, Jews and Gentiles.
Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
You 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 into a holy temple and
the Lord. in whom also you are builded
together for an inhabitation of God through the Spirit." Now,
I want to reiterate some of the things that I've said, especially
these three things. And I want to do that this morning
for just a minute, because it's profitable. It's profitable to
call you to remembrance of what the Scripture says. One of the
things that I've found out, that you get so little of what I say.
And what little you get, you go home and forget it. There's
one way that I know that you have laid hold of very little
of what I've been teaching out of this second chapter. None
of you have been shouted. None of you have come to me and
said, oh, I just can't get over this. So I think to myself, they're
not getting what I'm saying. But I can't go back and teach
it again, but I want to remind you of these three things, and
I'll look at it just a little different. This is maybe a long
introduction, but I want to remind you of these three things that
Paul was teaching us in this second chapter. And that was
the great change that had taken place in these Ephesians. A change that had taken place
in their condition. We saw that there in chapter
2, verse 1. What kind of change had taken
place? They were dead, and now they're alive. You have He quickened
who were dead. Can you imagine seeing a dead
man in a casket and then meeting him next week, walking the streets
alive? Wouldn't that be a miracle? Wouldn't
you say, I can't believe this. This is tremendous. This is amazing. And yet when we know it's happened
in our own life, are we not amazed? Can we read this and not be amazed
at what a change has come over us? Paul keeps repeating it.
He repeats it again in verse 5. Even when we were dead, he
can't get over it. Before he says, you were dead,
and now he says, even when you were dead. Well, if you're dead,
you're dead, aren't you? But Paul can't get over it. He
says, even when you were dead. He's quickened us together with
Christ. He's given us life in Christ.
And there in verse 10 he says it a different way. We are His
workmanship created. God is not in the remodeling
business. He is not coming in and turning
down the sheetrock just to put up more clean new sheetrock. He is building a new house created. A new heart will I put within
you. A new spirit will I give you. It is new. It is all new. He
tells us over in Ezekiel that, "...I will sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness will
I cleanse you." Ain't that a wonderful change? He's changed us thoroughly. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, hath cleansed us from all our sins. There was a time when
you were fornicators. Brother Larry read it to us.
We lived that way. Adulterers, idolaters. But he
says, now you're washed. Now you're justified. Now you're
sanctified. What a change. I think sometimes
it would be a good study for us just to go through the Scripture
and see what a change has occurred in the condition of the Christian.
It's a thorough change, a complete change. Everything that's still
wrong with us. And God knows there's a lot wrong
with us. But I tell you, hasn't things changed? You were sometimes
darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Ain't that amazing? You sat in darkness. You were
in a prison house of darkness. But now you're free. Now you're
walking in the light. What a tremendous change there
is. And until you and I just go to
the Bible and begin to read about it, we won't appreciate it like
we should. But secondly, this change that I mention so often
to you, a change in our position, not only in the condition from
death unto life, but verse 13, what a change in our position. Ye were sometimes afar off. But now, you're nigh. You're
near. You were far off from God, far
off from His favor, far off from salvation, far off from righteousness,
from life eternal, far off from hope. But now, what's your position? You're near to God. In Christ,
you're as near to God as Christ Himself is. Now, ain't that an
amazing position to be in? The psalmist says, they that
are far from thee shall perish. Well, why didn't you perish? That's where you were. All the
nations of the world in the Old Testament were ready to perish. And they did perish. They were
far off from God. That's where we were. That's
the position we occupied. But look now. We're near to God. That's the position that you
and I have as Christians. We're near to God. And why? Because we are in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Paul never gets
over that, does he? Why are we in Christ Jesus? God
put us there. And that changed everything,
didn't it? That changed our whole position. Those outside of Christ,
they're far off. But those in Christ, they're
nigh. They're near to God. You suppose this is why Paul
said, I count all things lost, that I may win Christ and be
found in Him? Ain't it wonderful to be found
in Him? If you can find yourself in Christ
this morning, I'm telling you, you're near. And how wonderful
that is! Found in Christ. I once was lost. Now I'm found. Were you found
in Christ? This my son was lost. And he's
now found. Come rejoice with me, I've found
my sheep, which was lost. And I tell you, if you're in
Christ this morning, this position will never change. As long as
Christ is in heaven at the right hand of the Father, near and
dear to His heart, that's where you'll be. This is one of the
most amazing things. This position that we're in,
we're just as near to God, just as dear to God, just as loved
of God as the Son of God Himself is. Because we're in Him. I tell
you, that's one of the most tremendous truths of God's Word. And I'm
still trying to get a hold of it. I'm still praying, Lord,
let me see this. Teach me this. But I tell you,
this is the only safe place to be. It's in Christ. There is
no other place that is saved. There is no other place a person
is saved or safe. It was said of Noah in Genesis
chapter 7, And Noah only remained of life, and they that were with
him in the ship. Everybody else was outside the
ship. outside the ark, and they perished. The only ones who were
saved and safe are those who were in the ark in Christ. I tell you, if you're in Christ
this morning, dear soul, you're the happiest person in this world.
You should be the happiest person in this world. The happiest person
in this world is not the healthy. It's not the richest. It's not
the wisest. It's not the mightiest. It's
those who are in Christ. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they're near, near to
God. And that'll never change. That'll
never change. There's been one great, tremendous
change. You were far off, but now you're
not. And that'll never change. Once
in Christ, always in Christ. Once near to God, always near
to God. What an encouragement to draw
near to God. If we are near to Him in this
position, then let us draw near to Him in our experience. Every day, just come right to
God in Christ. Having an high priest over the
house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, an honest
heart, sincere heart, and in full assurance of faith. Draw
near to Him. And this is the third thing I
want to remind us of. Not only of how our condition
has changed and our position has changed, but I tell you the
great privileges, the great privileges that the Christian has. He says
here in verse 19, you are no more strangers, but you're of
the household. You're family members. You're
of the family of God. You're no more foreigners, you're
no more aliens, but you're fellow citizens with the saints. Paul knew, and I imagine this
is one of the things that inspired him to mention this, that he
knew what a privilege it was to be a citizen. He knew the
advantage it gave you to be a citizen of the Roman Empire. You had
all kinds of advantages if you were a Roman citizen. Two of
the ways that you could be a Roman citizen, one was by birth, and
one was by purchase, by price. You remember when Paul was talking
to that centurion, and that centurion asked Paul, he said, are you
a Roman citizen? Paul said, I am. And that centurion
said, you look awful poor to me, how could you afford that?
He said, it cost me a lot of money to become a Roman citizen.
Paul said, I barned a Roman citizen. There's two ways you can be a
Roman citizen. There's the two ways you get into this citizenship,
this kingdom of heaven. It's by birth, and it's by a
great price. That's what makes us citizens
of this heavenly kingdom. The Christian is a citizen of
a heavenly country. at a great price and through
a great birth. In Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 20, here's what the Apostle said. Our conversation is in
heaven. Now, when you read that word,
if you don't go to the concordance and find out what that word means,
you'll think it means what we use it as today. When we think
of a conversation, what do we think of? I'm talking with somebody.
I had a conversation with someone this morning. I talked with someone.
When you read that word in the Scriptures, most usually it means
conduct, the whole conduct of the Christian's life in this
world. But here in Philippians 3, verse 20, it means citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven. It's of heaven. Right now, we're
in this world. But you know something, dear
child of God, you're a stranger in this world. You're a pilgrim
in this world. Your citizenship is in heaven. That's your permanent residence. That's not always been that way.
You used to be a resident of this world. You were a citizen
of this world. But you've been changed. Your
citizenship now is in heaven. I want to show you a passage
of Scripture. Look over in Hebrews chapter
11. Holy Ephesians, and we'll get to that text there in just
a minute. But look in Hebrews chapter 11. Somebody said, in this universe, there are these two great communities.
There's a worldly community, a community that's of this world,
and there's a heavenly community, a community that's of heaven.
This worldly community, they have their course, they have
their laws, they have their purposes, they have their end. This heavenly
community, it has its purposes, it has its course, it has its
rules, its laws. But there is as great a distinction
in these two communities, this earthly community and that heavenly
community, more so, then there is a distinction between any
two communities in this entire world. If you take the nation
that you and I live in, this wonderful nation that we love
and pray for, and you take North Korea, what you and I know about
those two nations, there is a great distinction between them. If
you live here and you enjoy the privileges that we have, you
go over there and all those privileges are taken away. You're under
an awful dictatorship. You don't have the freedom. Distinction
between our two nations. But that fails in comparison
to this worldly community as opposed to the heavenly community.
And you and I, as children of God, we're not citizens of this
worldly community anymore. We're citizens of that heavenly
community. That's why we're strangers and pilgrims here. Look what
was said here about Abraham. Look in Hebrews chapter 11 and
begin here in verse 10. Talking about Abraham, he looked,
he sought for a city which hath foundations whose builder and
maker is God. What city did Abraham look for? Turn over. Hold that right there. And turn over to chapter 13.
Turn over to chapter 13. Look what he says. He wasn't seeking.
Abraham wasn't looking for an earthly Jerusalem. He wasn't
looking for a city made with hands. He was looking for a heavenly
city. And that word here, city, and
as you read there in chapter 11, country, it simply means
a permanent residence. Abraham was looking for a permanent
residence. And look what he says in Hebrews
chapter 13, talking about that city. In verse 13, look at this. Hebrews 13, 13. Let us go forth
unto Christ without the count, bearing His reproach, For here
we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We seek
one to come. If Jerusalem had been a permanent
city, it was still standing at this time. Why didn't Paul say,
we found this permanent city? We found our residence. No, he
said, there at Jerusalem, Though the temple is still standing
and the priesthood is still being practiced, he said, that's not
our city. We're looking for another city. What is it? Heaven. Heaven. That heavenly city where
our citizenship is. Look back over in Hebrews chapter
11 now. He further explains this. Look
in verse 11. Verse 10. For he looked for a city whose
builder and maker is God, hath foundations. For through faith
Sarah received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a
child when she was of a past age. In verse 12, there sprang
even of one, even of Abraham, him that was as good as dead,
as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, as the sand which
is by the sea sure enumerable. These all died in faith, not
having received the fulfillment of the promises, but having seen
them afar off, they were persuaded of them and embraced them, and
said, were strangers and pilgrims on this earth." Look in verse
14, "...for they that say such things declare plainly that they
seek a country." That word means a homeland. A permanent dweller. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country from which they came out, they might have had
opportunity to have return. But now they desire a better
country. What kind of country? A heavenly
country. Why do they desire that? Because
that's where their citizenship is. The one that purchased them
come down from there. They're born from above. That's
the new Jerusalem. Heaven itself. Wherefore, God
is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for
them a city. A city. Heaven. Ain't that wonderful? We're citizens, Paul said. We're
fellow citizens of heaven. All the saints there. And all
the saints here are fellow citizens of heaven. I've seen people, and you've
seen it too, when they've been outside this country, especially
if someone has been kidnapped and held in some foreign country.
You've seen them come back to this country, and as soon as
they get off the plane, what do they do? They get down and
kiss the ground, don't they? I can understand that, can't
you? I was down in Mexico for seven or ten days or so. I thought,
man, I've got to get home. And I tell you, when the plane
sat down, oh, my goodness, I thought, oh, thank God, I'm home. I'm
home. Wouldn't it be a blessing, brothers
and sisters, to be home? And you'll feel at home there,
too, because that's where your citizenship is. They say sometimes aliens that
have come to this country and they've studied to become citizens,
and they take the oath, and all of us have seen this. They've
got a room about this size or so, and they've got 50 or 60
aliens in there, and they're taking the oath to become a citizen
of this great country. And when they give them that
oath, I tell you, they're like a bunch of high school graduates.
Sometimes old people. And they're smiling and jumping,
they're so happy. Why? They become a citizen. A citizen. And you know some
of those love this country more than ones who are born here. And I guess that's the way it
will be in heaven, too. I think elect sinners, elect saints,
will appreciate and love heaven more than the elect angels will.
They were born there, you see. They were created there. We were
aliens to that place. But now we're citizens. And oh,
when we step foot on that place, after being in this place, I'll
kiss it, won't you? A heavenly city. But Paul goes
on to say more than that, that you're not only fellow citizens
of this heavenly country. But he says something else, and
it's even a greater privilege. He says there in the last portion
of verse 19 in chapter 2 of Ephesians, He said, you are the household
of God. The family of God. That's even
better than being a citizen, ain't it? In the family. The
Father has a family. In chapter 3 and verse 10, it
says the whole family in heaven and earth are named of the Father. What's He named them? Family.
You're my family, He said. Those in heaven and those on
earth are His family. I was reading a little book the other day, J.C.
Ryle, where we know one another in heaven. And to me, that's
so preposterous to say that we wouldn't. Not to know our brothers
and sisters? Not to know our family? When
you get together with your brothers and sisters at a family reunion,
don't you know all of them? Well, sure you do. They're family.
They're brothers and sisters. We'll know each other there.
And I tell you, we'll not only know each other, but we'll feel
right at home there. We'll feel right at home there.
Don't you feel at home when you're with your family? Well, sure
you do. And you don't hesitate a minute
to go right up to any of them. and start talking, or hug their
necks. When you and I are in heaven,
you wait and see if this don't happen. Now we think we'd be
a little bit backward about walking up to Holy Samuel and start a
conversation with him, or taking blessed Daniel around the neck
and hugging him and saying, Brother, it's so good to see you. Or Elijah
or Moses. How did Peter And John and James
know Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. Did
the Lord introduce them? Why, no. Peter knew them. He
said, this is Moses and Elijah. How did he know that? They're
families. They're family. I don't know. I have no idea now the situation
we're in now. And you think about the saints
in heaven, how are we going to know them? But they're family. And you know family. And you're
right at home with a family. We're of the household of God. What a privilege. What a privilege
that we have. Household of God. Now here in verse 20, Paul looks at the church under
this analogy of a building. He looked at it under the analogy
of having citizenship, the family, and there a building with foundation. Brother Larry talked about the
chief cornerstone this morning, and we looked at that. And he
tells us something about this building in verse 21. Now here's
where we begin, and it won't take me just a few minutes. I
wanted to reiterate that to you. Our change in our condition,
the change in our position, and the great privileges, that's
what you'll find that we are not steady on. I wanted to reiterate
that. But he tells us some things about
this building. Look in verse 20. "...in whom
all the building..." The church is a building. "...and as a building,
it is fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord." We just want to simply look at that verse right quick.
First of all, let's look at some things he tells us about this
building. First of all, he says this, the building is being built
in Jesus Christ. Did you notice that? In whom?
All the building fitly framed together. It's growing up in
Him. Another place it said that this
building is built by Jesus Christ. Upon this rock I'll build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Another place it said that the church is built upon Him. I've laid the foundation. That
is, as a preacher, a minister, I've laid the foundation, and
another man buildeth their own. Christ is the foundation that
we're built upon. But did you notice this here,
how He says this? In whom all the building. In whom all the building. There's just one building. Did
you notice that? It's not a housing project. It's
a building. The building. And there's but
one. Why is that so important? Well,
here's one reason, brothers and sisters, it's so important. There's
a lot of talk today and a lot of debate about who the church
is, who is in the church, how do you get in the church, and
a lot of this debate would cease and the debate would be won in
truth if we just remembered these three things. The church is in
Christ. The church is in Him. The church
is being built by Him, and the church is being built up on Him. And those three things would
put it at rest. We've had these silly prophets
today talking about these people in tribal situations. We've all
heard it, haven't we? Those people over there in the
tribal situations. Those people over there in those
tribes, they never heard the gospel. They've never heard the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they believe there is a God,
and they're doing the best they can, therefore they're in the
church. That's not right, is it? Here
we're told there's one church, and it's that church that's being
built in Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, and upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there is no other church.
There's no other building but this one. In whom? The building. The building. Ain't it amazing how you can
take just one verse, just a portion of one verse, and it puts all
of these silly theories to rest? It stops the debate, doesn't
it? In whom? All the building. The building. Is the man in Christ? Then he's
not in this building. Is Christ building? Has Christ
put him in the church? Then he's not in this building.
Is he building upon Christ? Upon this foundation of God's
Word, the truth? Then he's not in this building.
The building. The building. And notice something
else about this building. Not only is it in Christ, the
building is in Christ. It's being built with skillful
hands. Look what he said. In whom all
the building fitly framed together. That word, it's the only time
it's used, they tell me in the entire New Testament. Fitly framed
together. And it means close-jointed together. Closely jointed together. In
other words, these stones, they just fit. They fit right in there. There's no slop in them. Nothing
that you have to be filled up with a bunch of tempered mortar.
They're fitly joined together. If you want to read something
amazing, you go over sometimes and read, especially in 1 Kings
6, about how they built the temple of the Lord, the house of the
Lord. And the Scripture says it was built of stones made ready. Stones made ready. And those
still... quarrymen, they went up into
the quarries, stone quarries, and they dug out stone. They
sawed, and they took their hammers and their chisels, and they dug
these stones out, separated them from this rock. And they cut
them, they'd chisel on them and saw them, and they'd get them
just right. And then they'd take them down
to Jerusalem, there at the temple. And they'd just fit right in
that temple. There was no sound. That's why
they did it. The Lord said, there can't be
any sound going on here at the temple. You can't have people
hammering and sawing and hollering and measuring. You cut them up
there in the quarries. You get them just right. You
shape them. You bring them down here. That's what they did. And
when they took that stone into the temple, it sat right in there.
It fit perfectly. That's the way the Lord's built
in His church. Did you know that? That's the way He is built in
His church. He begins in the quarry of our
hearts. That's where He separates us.
He goes up to the quarry of the heart and He begins to chip at
it, and saw it, and hammer at it, cut off those bad edges. And then when He's finished with
it, He brings it and puts it right in the church, right in
this building. And it just fits. And there's
quietness then, you see. Now, when He's cutting, when
He's hammering, when He's chiseling, I tell you, there's a lot of
racket going on in the heart, ain't there? Yes, there's a lot. You see people think they're
in the church, they're stoned in this building, and yet the
Lord's never taken a hand to heal on them and saw them and
cut them. You've never heard all that racket going on in your
heart, all the turmoil that's taking place there. What is happening?
Conviction of sin. The Lord is swilling away what
He don't want on there. But then when He brings you and
puts you in the church, there's quietness there then. We don't
have any problems here, do we? Ain't it amazing? There's no
uproars going on. How do you folks get along? You
don't have a bunch of rules and things and business meetings
and all of this. How do you folks get along? How
do you have all this quietness and peace? The Lord's done a
lot of chiseling and beating the rough edges off in the quarry
before He ever brought it here and put it in the building. That's
what's going on. Now we've got quietness, don't
we? Now we have this rest. Joe and I was watching. One of
Joe's favorite channels. We don't watch much TV, but she
watches that HGTV. House building and house remodeling.
And the reason she does that is because it gets her a lot
of ideas. For me, you see. But we were watching them build
this house the other night on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. We were up there, weren't we?
We were watching them build this house. I think it's like, oh my, one
of three point so many million dollar houses. Beautiful house.
But there was two things I noticed as they were laying the stones
on that house. The first thing I noticed as
I watched them, the mason didn't take every stone he picked up.
I thought, now this is amazing. What he would do He had a whole
pile of stones, and he'd pick one up, and he'd chip on it,
and he'd hold it up there and look at that wall, and chip on
it some more. And sometimes he'd take it, and
boy, there it was. He'd get right in there. Sometimes
he'd chip on it and hold it up, and he'd throw it back in the
pile. That's the way the Lord's doing
it. Paul would have us to think about
this. As I was watching that, I thought about that old song
by Fanny Crosby, Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble
cry, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. O Lord, don't pass me by. I mean,
you cut me. You beat me. You chisel on me. You knock every edge off that's
not pleasing to you. Don't throw me back on the rock
heap. Work with me, farm me, put me
into your church. Don't pass me by. Is it not that
this church is being built by a sovereign architect? It's Him
that chooses each stone and shapens it and sets it in the building
as it pleases Him. Is it not Him that does that?
No stone ever chose itself. No stone ever put itself in the
business, in the building. That's the architect that does
that. That's that wise mason that does that. The passage of
Scripture Brother Larry was reading this morning about your lively
stones. That's put in this building.
In the same breath, he said, you're a chosen generation. Yes,
you're stones, you're lively stones, but you're chosen stones. The second thing that I noticed
as Joe and I were sitting and watching this man build this
house out of these stones, it didn't look good at all. I
mean, it looked awful. I thought within myself, I thought,
man, that's just not going to turn out. And the lady, her and
her husband, she kept coming out and she said, no, that ain't
going to work. That's not going to work. And she even said, you're
going to have to turn it down and start over. I don't like
the design. And it did look awful. I mean,
you had all different shapes. You had all different designs,
all different sizes, all different colors. And it looked awful until
it was finished. I couldn't believe what I seen
when they showed us after they'd got it finished. It was absolutely
beautiful. If that would have been my house,
I'd have said, you've got to tear it down, let's build it
out of brick. Let's build it out of brick. Everything's got
to be exactly, you know. You know, when you build an old
brick house, that's what it is, just an old brick house. But
you take all these different shapes of rocks, all different
sizes, all different shades, And if you're wise, master builder,
you put all of those in there, and when you finish with it,
they're all just knitted together, all the different colors blend
together, and it's absolutely gorgeous. You look at the church
now, and some people would like to say, just tear it down. It's
a mess. It's a mess. Look at all the
different shapes and the colors. It's just a mess. And it looks
so weak. It looks like the wall is buoyed.
It's going to fall. But brothers and sisters, our
sovereign architects are not finished with this church. You're
way least finished with it. And what years seem to clash. Different cultures, different
shapes, different sizes, different understanding. Different nations. Aren't we all so different? But
I tell you, when the Lord gets finished, that will be one of
the beauties of this church. That He's put them in there.
And how knitted together they are. And how they blend together. You know what makes a flower
garden beautiful? All these different kinds of flowers that's in them. When the Lord's finished with
His church, you just wait and see if this don't happen. then
you and I will realize why He calls Zion the perfection of
beauty. That's what He calls it now.
And we look at Zion now in this world, it's anything sometimes
but a perfection of beauty. But we'll see some of that. We'll
see some of that. It's nitly, fitly joined together. And he says something about it.
The third thing he says about it, and this is amazing. Here,
look at this. "...in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth." Growing. Have you ever heard of a building
growing? Now, some people may say that, but when I watch them
build a house or some kind of building, I've never said to
myself, boy, that building is growing. I always say something
like, boy, it's going up. They're adding to it. But I've
never said it's growing. One man said this word means
a living organism. A living organism. In other words,
this is a building. It is a building. But Paul, he
seemed to get his analogies. What do you call those other
things, Larry? I can't never keep them. Metaphors? Gets his metaphors all confused
up. Because he takes a building, and now he goes to something
that's organic, that's alive and growing. A building's not
alive, is it? But Paul says this one is. He
does that again in Colossians chapter 2 when he says this,
rooted and built up in him. That's two different things.
Rooted means you're alive, like a tree. Build up means your house
like this. Rooted and built up. I think
this is what the problem is in using all these metaphors. You
just can't take one metaphor and adequately describe the mystery
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You just can't do it.
She's a mystery. She's alive. She's organic. She's breathing. She's moving. She's a living stone. Living
stones. Living stones. That's amazing,
isn't it? She's growing. She's growing.
She's growing. You know one of the reasons that
I never, I'm never in my ministry, and as a pastor, emphasize church
membership. I know when Larry and Sue came
and wanted to join us. I never went and said, you guys want
to join us? I never even thought about it. I guess we thought
they were among us before they asked to join us. You never did
put your name on a ledger, did you? Maybe we should. Maybe I should as a pastor. Make
a bigger deal out of church membership. Putting our names down. But you
know one reason I don't. To me it has a sense of diminishing. the glory of this church. I believe
in the local church as much as anybody. I believe in the universal
church as anybody. But what is the church? What
is it? It's a living building. It's alive. And putting your
name on a ledger doesn't get you into it. It doesn't even
mean you're part of it. She groweth. This building groweth. Groweth. It is groweth. It's
growin' in grace, growin' in number, and someday it'll be
finished, but it'll always be alive. It'll always be alive. And fourthly, notice this about
this building. Notice what it is. This is wonderful. In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth in tune and holy temple. You'd think
that Paul was going ahead to say, you know, this is a building
the family lives in. After all, that's what he'd been
talking about, the household. But he doesn't. He changes again.
And he says instead of just a building or a house to live in, it's a
temple. A temple. The temple at Jerusalem
was a specific place. A particular building. Built
for this very reason. to worship God in. That's what
it was built for. My house shall be called a house
of prayer. That's what the Master said about
His temple. They had a priesthood. They had sacrifices. The priest
would offer those sacrifices and sometimes the succant of
glory would come down and fill that temple. He'd so fill the
temple they couldn't even offer their sacrifices anymore. You
know what that temple is now? You know who that temple is now?
That's the church. She's the temple of the living
God. And he says here in verse 22,
the last verse in this chapter, he says this about her. "...in
whom all the building, in whom all the building, in whom ye
also are built together for the inhabitation of God through the
Spirit." See that? God inhabited that temple. But now He inhabits the church.
This is the temple. This is the temple of the living
God. And you know we have a priesthood? And we have spiritual sacrifices?
There are various texts. You are a kingdom of priests?
You're offering up these spiritual sacrifices to God, acceptable
by Jesus Christ. What are those sacrifices? It's
heart and lip worship, giving thanks and praise under His name. We are the temple, the church
is the temple of the living God. And don't we crave His presence,
brothers and sisters? Oh, we crave His presence. Oh,
fill us, Lord God. Fill us. Fill this temple. Fill this local temple. Fill
the universal temple. Fill it with what? Fill it with
Yourself. Fill it with Your presence. That's
what we crave, isn't it? It was said of the early church
that they prayed, and the place was shaken where they were assembled
together, and they were all filled. That's what we want. Filled with
the Spirit of the Living God. We're His temple. Lord, fill
us with Yourself. Fill with all the fullness of
God. What does that mean? I don't know. But I'd love to
be filled with the fullness of God. I'll tell you the thing about
the church in heaven. She'll be filled. She'll be filled. Blood runs through these veins
now and water. She'll be filled with the fullness
of God. Not blood, not water, but the
Spirit of the living God. What will that mean? You hear some people today, poor
things, still contending, that that Jerusalem that you and I
know of now, that's over there in that mess, that the temple
is going to be rebuilt there, and the sacrifices are going
to be offered again, and God is going to come and occupy that
temple. Can you imagine being here? and
somebody comes up, or you get a letter saying, boy, if you
can just get over to Jerusalem. They've rebuilt the temple, and
God is there. That's degrading, ain't it? Ain't
that a downgrade? It's not that worldly temple,
it's gone. Here's the temple. Here's the
temple. The church is the temple now.
And what a downgrade for us and a downgrade for the living God
to have Him rebuild that temple out of stone and go over there
in that cold, dead place. No, He has a living building. It's the church. Notice how Paul here describes
this temple. He doesn't say it's a large temple.
If he said it's a large temple, that would eliminate us when
I look out over you this morning. It's not a large temple here.
But I like this, it is a holy temple. In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth into a sacred, blameless, pure temple. Why is she holy? Why is it a
holy temple? Well, he said, in the Lord. He began that way and he ends
that way. Why is this church holy? Because it's in the Lord. Saved in the Lord. That's why
we're holy, brothers and sisters. The Lord Jesus has washed us.
He's justified us. He's clothed the shame of our
nakedness with the robe of His righteousness. We're holy in
Him. Christ shall present the church
to Himself. without spot or blemish or any
such thing. But it will be holy, holy in
Him and by Him. I don't know how to tell people
to be holy. Maybe I should start reading more and getting more
hold of that. It seems like when I start trying
to tell people how to be more holy, I just make self-righteous
people out of it. I paste it on holiness at best. Here's what seems to work better
in my experience. Am I in this church? Has God put me in this living
church? Has He put me in the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I in Christ? Then being in
Him, I'm holy. Holy in the Lord. Do we realize
that? That's it. Do we realize that?
Do we realize what we are in Christ? If we do, then just live
it out in your daily life. Are you holy in Him? Are you
near to God in Him? Then just live that out. Live like it in your everyday
life. Are you a temple of the living
God? Does God dwell in you? Does He walk in you? Does He
sit with you and commune with you? Just live like it. And you
can't improve on that. You cannot improve on that. If
you and I could just come to the realization of this, that
we are indeed an inhabitation of God. He dwells in us. Oh, how that would change our
lives. If we talk about holiness, I tell you, that's where it would
be found. That's where it would be. Holiness in our everyday
life. You're a habitation of God. Ain't
that a wonderful thought? Go home and think on that. And
if you don't shout or come back to me next week and say, oh,
I'll begin to say it, I'm going to go over this again. Let's pray.