In Ephesians chapter 2, I imagine my lesson and Brother
Larry's lesson this morning will overlap just a little bit, but
a little repetition won't hurt us. Let's begin reading here again.
in verse 18 of Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 18. For through Him,
we both, through Him, the Lord Jesus, we both, Jew and Gentile,
every believer, have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. One God, one mediator between
God and man. one Holy Spirit. Now, therefore,
you are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And
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 grows unto an unholy temple in
the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an inhabitation
of God through the Spirit." The foundation of the church. That's
the title of our message this morning. Paul had been speaking
here in chapter 2 of unity. I think that's probably the theme
of these last few verses that you and I looked at, the unity.
And not only the unity, but the privilege of our position. We
saw that, haven't we? But the unity of all believers,
whether he be Jew or whether he be Gentile. Unity in the worship
of one God. Unity in our hearts. Unity in
our purpose. The oneness of every believer,
whether he be Jew or Gentile, bond or free. And he tells us
here how this unity came to be. How can it possibly be, and what
a mystery this is, that a believing Jew and a believing Gentile could
have unity? They were at enmity. They hated
each other. And now Paul speaks of this unity. How can it be? Well, he tells
us here in verse 16 that we have many things in common. And here's
one thing that they have in common, and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross. One thing we have in common,
brothers and sisters, every man has in common, is this, that
he's a sinner. The Jews were sinners. The Gentiles were sinners. The
Gentiles were far off, yes. He reminds them of that in verse
12. You were without God. You were
without hope in this world. But you know, in a very strict
sense of the word, the Jews were just as bad off as the Gentiles.
When Paul was writing to them there in the first two or three
verses, he reminds them of that. He said in verse 3, among whom
also we all had our conversation in time past. Not only did the
Gentiles walk according to the course of this world, but the
Jews did too. The Gentiles were children of
wrath by nature, but Paul said, so were we Jews. All of us. In other words, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All men come from the womb
speaking lies. We're sinners. We're guilty before
God. It doesn't make any difference
who our mom and dad is. It don't make any difference
what our nationality is, the color of our skin, our culture. We're sinners, aren't we? We're
sinners. Paul said we have that in common.
And he said, we have this in common. There's this one way
of reconciliation. That's in Jesus Christ. The cross
of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, has made peace for us. He hath made peace for us through
the blood of His cross. So there's some things that we
have in common. We're all sinners. were all reconciled
to God by the cross of Christ. And in verse 17, he reminds them
that they have something else in common. And the Lord Jesus
Christ by His Spirit came and preached peace to you which were
afar off and to them that were near. I don't care if you're
a Gentile. I don't care if you're a Jew.
You'll never have peace with God until you hear the gospel
of Jesus Christ and believe it. You must hear it. There'll come
a time when you'll have to be still and you'll have to listen
while some poor hillbilly preacher stands before you and preaches
the gospel. And then you'll hear it. And
then you'll believe it. And no matter who you are, Jew
or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, you'll have peace
with God. And you know what happens when
you have peace with God? You'll have peace with the children
of God. We have some things in common. The children of God have
some things in common. I don't care what nationality
they are or where you find them in this world. They've got these
things in common. And you know what separates people.
You know what separates people? More than one. You get one, you
can't have any division. It's when you get more than one
that you've got division. And what the Apostle Paul reminds
these believing Jews and believing Gentiles is, that you fellows
are no more two. Ain't that what he tells them?
Look in verse 14. He is our peace. who have made
both one. There cannot be division. There
cannot be disunity where there is just one. And he tells them
in verse 15, He has abolished in His flesh the enmity, that
law of commandments, all those ordinances, and the priesthood
and the sacrifice, all that is taken away, for to make in Himself
of two, one new man. And when you have got one, You
don't have any disunity. So what do you have? Peace. Peace. See the unity Paul is talking
about here? Peace. How can the believing
Jew and the believing Gentile possibly be joined together through
this Jesus of Nazareth, the blessed and dear Son of God? You are
one. You are one. All of those in
Jesus Christ are truly one. Now that's what we have to realize.
I hope I've stressed this, that you don't leave this morning
saying we should be one. I hope you don't leave this morning
and say we ought to labor and endeavor to be one. What we ought to endeavor to
see is that we are one. that through Jesus Christ, every
believer is one, no matter who he is or who she is. If we're
in Christ, we are one. And therefore, Paul tells us
in chapter 4 that we should endeavor to keep this unity of the Spirit. Endeavor to see it. Endeavor
to know it. Now what the Lord Jesus prayed
for in His high priestly prayer, that they may be one. that they
may know that they're one. I in you, He said, and you in
me, and I in them, that they may be one in us, that they may
know it. Do you reckon we'll ever reach that pinnacle, that point in
this lifetime? Do you think the church of Jesus
Christ in this world will ever reach the point where it has
this unity, The knowledge of it and lives in that unity is
one, I doubt it. I doubt it. Don't you? You look back through church
history and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has never,
never lived in the unity that she actually has. We've always
got the little conflicts, the little isms among us. And we
can hardly have it. Some have more life than others.
Some have more liberty than others. And these things are always dividing
us. But brothers and sisters, there
is coming a day, there is coming an hour, when the church will
realize that she is indeed one. And there will be perfect peace
and perfect harmony. That's the final purpose. We
sing that in chapter 1 in verse 10. When the fullness of time
has come, God is going to gather together in one all things in
Christ. And there will be perfect harmony.
But I'm telling you, the church is one now. I just wish we could
realize it. And wish God would give us grace
and understanding to live as one. But she is one. She does
have unity. This is not a supposed case. Now we come to verse 19, and
Paul is still speaking here of this unity. Everything he's pointing
at here, he's not only pointing to our privilege of our position,
and we looked at that a few days ago, what it means to be in Christ.
Just by being in Christ, what a privilege! Because being in
Christ we are made nigh by the virtue of being in Him. We are
as near to God as Christ is. But here he keeps speaking of
this unity. And he says here in verse 19
that we looked at last week, he talks about these fellow citizens. Citizens of the same community. You have this in common, he said.
You're citizens of a state. You're citizens of a nation.
You remember in September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came tumbling
down? Awful, awful sight. And remember
for a while how we put all of our differences aside? Remember
how the country came together as one? Why did we do that? Because we're fellow citizens.
And we may have our little spats one with another, but when an
outsider, when a foreigner comes in and attempts to attack us,
that shows you the camaraderie, the fellow citizens. That one
interest, the common interest. We're citizens of this nation.
We're citizens of a heavenly kingdom, aren't we? And then he goes on here to speak
of the household. The household. And I sometimes
wonder, when Paul was talking about fellow citizens, if he
didn't go ahead and begin to think to himself, what makes
up a nation? We're fellow citizens of a nation,
a kingdom, but what makes up that kingdom? Households. That household. What's our nation
made up of? Households. Families. So Paul
comes here and he thinks of families. A household. The household of
God. I love that, don't you? The family
of God. Aren't you glad that you're part
of the family of God? I love that passage of Scripture,
and I think I quoted it to you last week, where the Lord Jesus
said, if they have called the master of the house, The master
of the house. Belzebub. How much more shall
they call them of his household? The household of faith. The household
of God. And I tell you, I've experienced
this. You take a family having a little spat among themselves,
and you're not part of that family, you better stay out of it. Because
I'll tell you what will happen. It happens every time. You get
in the middle of it, and the family will turn on you. Why
would they do that? Because that's the family, buddy.
And you don't mess with the family. When trouble comes, you watch
them come together. We're family, aren't we? We're
the household of God. And we have our little spats,
but you let an outsider, you let a stranger come in, and you'll
see how the family sticks together. The household of God. And Paul
was thinking about the family, and here in verse 20, it seems
like that it's just natural now for him to go on and think of
a building. Where does the family live? Where
does the household live? Well, he says in verse 20, you
are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. When you think
of a family, you live in a building, don't you? Mom and Dad, the kids,
they build a building, they move in a building, they live in a
building as the family. Well, when Paul began to think
of a building, his mind just naturally went to a foundation. If you've got a building, you
have to have a foundation, don't you? And that's where we come
to in our study this morning. This church, this building, It's
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Brothers and sisters,
how important is a foundation? Do you know it's the most important
part of the building? Our Master tells us in Matthew
chapter 7, How important, how critical a foundation is. And not only a foundation, but
a right foundation. A strong foundation. He tells
us about these two houses. And families lived in these houses. Mom and dad and children. And they were in their house
one night. And this awful storm came through. And rains came
down from the heavens, and the floods came up, and beat against
the house, and the winds blew. Oh, and it was an awful storm,
our Master said. You read it, and you'll see the
whole attitude of what He was saying. It was a terrible storm.
And you could hear the wind beating against the walls. And out back,
you hear a tree, a huge tree in the backyard fell. And the
house was lit up with a lightning, and the thunderclaps would vibrate
your chest. And oh, it was a terrible storm.
And they rode it out. Dad and Mom and the kids. And finally the storm ceased.
And the family was safe. And the family was safe because
the house endured the storm. And the Lord Jesus tells us why
the house was not washed away by the storm. And He attributed
it to this, the foundation. He said when the storm came,
the house stood because it was founded. It was established upon
a rock. Ain't that what He said? And mom and dad and the kids
went outside. And the clouds were cleared away,
and the sun was beginning to come up, and you could see. And
they saw that their neighbor's house was gone. Mom and Dad and the kids had
been washed away. And they began to examine where
it stood. And you know what kind of foundation
it was built upon? Sand. Sand. And the Lord Jesus said, great
was the fall of that house. It could not be recovered. The
floods came and washed it away and everybody that was in it.
And great was the fall of it. How important, brothers and sisters,
is the foundation? It's essential. It's essential. In this spiritual realm, the
foundation which you and I build upon will determine It will be
the determining factor as to whether or not we will endure
the storm. The foundation is that determining
factor. When the enemy comes in like
a flood of mighty waters, when persecutions come like a tempest
to make us afraid, or the blast of the terrible ones are like
a storm against our wall, What will determine whether the church
stands or falls? It will be the foundation that
she's built upon. The terrible ones. Like the terrible
ones. The blast of the terrible ones
against the wall. I tell you, guilt is a terrible
one, ain't it? Oh my! You can't stand before
God in your guilt, can you? We can't stand before God guilty. We cannot. If we stand before
Him guilty on the day of judgment, we cannot stand. The guilty self
will sweep us away. If God should mark iniquity,
who could stand? Oh, the apprehensions of God's
anger is a terrible storm. I've felt that, haven't you? Temptations, trials, heaviness
of heart, things within and things without. The Lord Jesus said,
the water that comes even unto the soul. Oh, temptations, trials
are storms in life. Satan is a terrible one. He's a roaring lion walking about,
seeking whom he may devour. How would you like to meet a
roaring lion? Have you ever seen a real lion?
I used to see them on TV or in pictures, and I didn't think
they were all that big. About the size of a huge dog,
until I stood beside of a lion. A fearful thing. That's what
Satan is. He's a terrible one. And when
he comes against us, he's like a storm against our walls. Death is a terrible one. It comes
to us irresistible, and it ushers us out into eternal glory or
into eternal ruin. The judgment is like a blast
against the wall. Everything will be set right
in that day. Crooked things will be made straight. Secrets of the heart will be
revealed. And everyone will give account
of themselves to God. And the final verdict will be
rendered. These are storms, brothers and
sisters. What will the day of judgment
be for the ungodly? Oh, it will be a storm. David
said it's a storm. There will be like the chaff
which the wind driveth away. The ungodly shall not stand in
the congregation of the righteous." Oh, the same voice, the blessed
voice of Jesus Christ that stills the storms, His voice also creates storms. If there are any heavy hearts
from saints on the day of judgment, His voice will still those storms.
I don't know how it will be there, when the hearts of the saints
even are exposed, when they give account of what they did in this
lifetime. I don't know what that will be
like. But if there's any heavy hearts from any saint there,
the voice of the Lord Jesus will still that storm when He says,
Come ye blessed of My Father. But oh, when the unbeliever stands
there, and though he stands with confidence in himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ will speak and what a storm will be created. Depart
from Me, ye cursed. Depart from Me, ye cursed. My
question to us this morning, brothers and sisters, is this.
It's not whether we're members of a local church, as important
as we deem that to be. But are you and I in that church
that is built by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Are we in that
church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it? Are
you and I in that church this morning that's built upon this
foundation that will not sink or sag, but will endure throughout
eternal ages? That's the question we must answer. Am I in this church? Am I being built upon this foundation? And what is this foundation?
Well, Paul tells us here in verse 20. It's the doctrine. It's the words. It's the truths. It's the teachings of these apostles. of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the prophets of God. What is this foundation in a
word? It's the Word of the Lord. It's
the Word of the living God. He's opened up His heart. He's
opened up His mind and He's revealed to these holy apostles and to
these prophets in the Old and in the New Testament, everything
that's needful to know and believe concerning God's redemptive purpose. And this revelation has been
written down and infallibly preserved for us by the sovereign providence
of God. I tell you, I'm going to make
an amazing statement. You may want to write this down.
This is a profound statement. I have here this morning, I have
right here in my hands, in my little weak hands of clay,
I'm holding in my hands the foundation upon which the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is being built. Ain't that wonderful? You may want to write that down
if you can't remember it. And sometime during the week, just
get out your Bible and hold it there in your hand and say, How
amazing! How amazing! How astounding! I hold in my hand The foundation
of the apostles and prophets. Ain't that amazing? Now let's look at it just for
a minute. First of all, let's consider this, because this is
so important. Let's go into just a little bit
of detail here this morning. First of all, what are apostles? If you and I are built upon the
foundation of these apostles, what is an apostle? Well, he was a disciple, he was
a messenger, he was a witness, a preacher, but he was more than
that. An apostle was one chosen to
be in a special office above these. He was a witness, yes,
but He wasn't a common witness. He was a preacher, but not a
common preacher. Now let me prove this to you
because this is so important to you and I. You remember when
our Lord Jesus spent all night in prayer, and He came back early
the next morning in Luke chapter 6 and verse 13, and this is what's
said. And here is an apostle. When
it was day, he called to them his disciples. He had a bunch
of them, I imagine. But listen to this. And of them,
he chose twelve whom he named apostles. Twelve out of the group
of disciples. And he put them in this office
as an apostle. That was a special office. And
you remember when Judas had betrayed the Lord Jesus, and our Master
had gone back to heaven, and the little church was gathered
there in that room, 120 of them. And Peter stood up and he says,
Judas has failed from his office as an apostle. And he said, therefore,
one must be chosen to replace him in that office. And they
chose Matthias to take Judas' place. And in Romans 1, in verse
1, Paul says that he is called to be an apostle. And in Acts
14, in verse 14, Barnabas and Paul are referred to as apostles. How many apostles is there? I'm
not for sure. I'm not for sure. There originally
was twelve of them. How many were there in the early
church? I'm not for sure. But they had
this special office. They weren't common men in their
office. Now I want to prove that to you
and I want to give you four things concerning an apostle. First
of all, an apostle was one who had seen the Lord Jesus Christ
after His resurrection. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 1, the
apostle Paul said, Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the
Lord Jesus Christ? That seems to be a qualification,
and when we look at number two, we'll realize why it had to be
a qualification. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, the apostle said, last of all, Christ was seen of me as
one born out of due time. Now, if this was a qualification
of that apostle, that he had to see the risen Savior, I doubt
seriously if we've got any apostles today. And secondly, Along this same
line, an apostle is this. He was a special witness of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all you and I have
to do is begin reading in Acts chapter 1. And we find this continually,
that the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's what Peter said when
they ordained this man to take Judas' place. One must be ordained
to be a witness with us of His resurrection. And when Peter
went down to preach to Cornelius the Gentile, he told him that
the Jews had taken the Lord Jesus and had slew Him and hanged Him
on a tree. And he said this, Him God hath
raised the third day and showed Him openly. But then quickly
he adds, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before
of God, even us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose
from the dead." Eyewitnesses, they saw the Son of God in His
glorified body after He had raised from the dead. Paul preached
this first message that we have recorded in Acts chapter 13,
and he makes a similar statement. He told those at Antioch, he
said, the Jews took the Lord Jesus and crucified Him, but
God hath raised Him from the dead, and He was seen many days
by them that came up with Him from Galilee and Jerusalem, who
are His witnesses unto the people. Witnesses of the resurrection.
That's who the apostles were. They saw Him after His resurrection,
and they went then and said to the people, He has arisen from
the grave. Peter and John, when they stood
before the Sanhedrin Council, it was said this, Peter and the
other apostles answered and said, they answered and said to these
religious leaders, we ought to obey God rather than man. The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom He slew and hanged
on a tree. Him hath God raised from the
dead and exalted Him with His right hand to be a Prince and
a Savior to give repentance to Israel. And we are witnesses
of these things. And so is the Holy Ghost. So
what is that apostle? He was one who saw Jesus Christ
in His resurrected body. Secondly, he was one who witnessed
to that fact, to that account. And you read through the book
of Acts, and you'll see that constantly through the book of
Acts, that with great power and authority gave these apostles
witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The third thing
about these apostles is this. They had special powers. They
did great miracles. When the Lord Jesus first called
them in Matthew chapter 10 and Mark chapter 6, The Scripture
says that He called unto them, the twelve, and began to send
them out two by two, and He gave them power over unclean spirits,
power to cast out devils, and to heal all manner of sicknesses
and diseases. And when you and I read the book
of Acts, so often we find this statement, or others like this,
that great signs and wonders were done by the hands of the
apostles. There were very few exceptions
where anybody did a miracle except the apostles. They even laid
the sick down and when Peter was walking the street, his shadow
would touch them and they would be healed. They took handkerchiefs
and aprons from the body of the apostle Paul and took it to the
sick and they were healed. Peter raised a woman from the
dead. Paul raised a young man from
the dead. God was bearing them witness
with signs and miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. They weren't
common men. They had this office. They were
apostles. They could do these miracles.
And fourthly, this is concerning the apostles. He received a revelation
from God. And this is what we're talking
about here this morning. The church is built upon the
apostles. Paul was preaching to Thessalonians,
and they were saved, and he wrote them a letter back, and this
is what he said to them. That when you received the Word
of God, which you heard of us, you received it not as the Word
of men, But as it is in truth, the Word of God." Paul said,
when I spake, it was God's Word. I spake infallibly, without any
error. And you didn't receive it as
the words of Paul, but as the words of God. Peter was writing concerning
Paul's epistles. And he said, when I read them,
I have difficulty understanding some of them. And he said, those
who are unlearned and unstable, they twist his writings as they
do also other Scriptures. When Paul wrote, Peter says,
it's Scriptures. And what is it about the Scriptures?
Paul said, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's God's
breathed, holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. Paul said, The Gospel which I
preached to you, I didn't learn it of men, neither was I taught
it of men, but by the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Peter said, Be mindful of the words spoken before by the prophets,
and of us the commandments of the apostles of our Lord and
Savior. And you remember on the day of
Pentecost, when Peter preached to them, and 3,000 souls believed. Was it 3,000? They believed and
received His Word. And there was something amazing
said about those 3,000 people. That they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine. You mean the apostles had doctrine?
Where did they get it? Those poor ignorant fishermen,
where would they get any truth? It came from heaven. It was the
Word of the Lord. And now the church is built upon
the doctrine of the apostles, the teachings of the apostles,
the truth of these apostles. Not the apostles themselves.
There may be a certain sense in which that could be said as
they believe God and we believe God, but that's not what Paul's
talking about. He's talking about their doctrine,
their truth. It's invalid. What's a prophet? Well, in a way, he's much like
an apostle in this sense, that he receives direct messages from
God. God spoke to the fathers in the
Old Testament by the prophets. He spoke to them by dreams. He
spoke to them by visions. And sometimes He didn't just
speak to them. He spoke to one of them in a still, small voice.
He spoke to them since the world began. He's had His prophets. Peter says, the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man. It wasn't their thoughts. It wasn't their opinion. It wasn't
by human reasoning. But it came as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. There's an amazing statement
in Acts 1 and verse 16 where Peter was talking about the fall
of Judas. And here's what he said. He said, Men and brethren,
this Scripture must need to have been fulfilled which the Holy
Ghost by The mouth of David spake concerning Judas, who was God
to them that took Jesus. Isn't that an amazing statement?
David, hundreds of years, hundreds of years, spake concerning Judas
Iscariot. David didn't know Judas Iscariot,
but the Holy Ghost did. And David said, the Holy Ghost
spake by my mouth. Ain't that amazing? Here's what David said also.
The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His words were in
my tongue. David himself said, by the Holy
Ghost, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit on my right hand. These
prophets spake, but it wasn't even their thoughts. It was the
thoughts. It was the mind. It was the heart
of God being opened up to them. And they wrote it down. Or they'd
run out and preach it. And now you and I are built upon
what they said and what they wrote down. These are the words I spake unto
you, the Master said to His apostles, while I was yet with you. that
all thanks must be fulfilled which are written in the law
of Moses in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. To him gave all the prophets
witness." So what are we saying this morning? God moved upon
the hearts, the minds of these apostles that were in this special
office, and He opened His heart to them. And they went out and
preached it. And they wrote it down in these
epistles. Just like He did to those prophets in the Old Testament
and prophets in the New Testament. They went out and preached it.
And they wrote it down. And now Paul the Apostle says,
the church is built upon this foundation. The Word of the Lord. The Word of God. And notice here
in verse 20 again how he says this. He doesn't say that you're
built upon the foundations, but He says you're built upon this
one, one foundation. There's just one foundation.
The prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles and prophets
in the New Testament, they laid one foundation. There's not two. There's just one. Ain't that
amazing? Paul and Peter also brings these together. Paul was
preaching to the Jews and he said, having obtained help of
God, I continue to this day, witnessing both the small and
great, saying none other things than those which the prophets
and Moses said should come. Now Paul said much more. But
he didn't say anything that was contrary. to what Moses and the
prophets already said. The foundation is one. Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass away.
My Word. How firm a foundation, you saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. I heard a fellow say one time,
he said he is my pastor, He said a fellow told him one time, he
come in and said, you know, I'd rather be in the Word of God
as I would to be in heaven. And he said he stood and looked
at him for a minute, waiting for an answer on that. Who'd
rather be in the Word as you would to be in heaven? And he
said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall
not pass away. What kind of a foundation is
the church built upon? It'll never pass away. I'm telling
you, brothers and sisters, when the storm comes, I don't care
if it's from hell, heaven, or earth. The only way to move the church
is to first move the foundation. And it's there to stay. Heaven
and earth is going to pass. We will pass away. The glory
of flesh is going away. But the Word of our God shall
endure forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. I'll hurry and I'll close. Just
take me a few more minutes. Or with me just a minute longer.
Verse 20, And Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. The cornerstone in the building
that the apostle was thinking about here served two purposes.
One of the reasons we can't get a hold of this is we just don't
build buildings like some of the buildings they used to build
about. Brother Larry is talking about this morning a building
of stones. Not of brick, but of stones. You can see this building that
what Paul was talking about and remember how some of them were
built. And think of this when you think of a cornerstone. These
cornerstones. Think of it like this. They had
to be somewhat huge. And they had to be set. You think
of building an eight by eight deck. And what you do, you set
that post. Then Brother Larry set off of
that post, you shoot over here and set another post. And then
you've got four posts. And then you build that deck
on those four posts. And you can begin to see then
the importance of a cornerstone. Those posts we think of as corner
posts, corner stones. And that stone upheld the weight
of the building, you see. I remember we used to live in
an old log house. And they'd set these stones. I have some
old pictures of it now. They'd set a stone and they'd
run a beam from stone to another stone. And you could crawl in
under that. It was the cornerstones that
were supporting the weight of the building. And secondly about
this cornerstone is this. It joined or united the walls
and the rest of the foundation together. You look today and it still happens
when you see somebody laying a block wall. You see somebody
laying a block wall, and they'll start on the corners. You ever
seen them do it? And they start on the corner, and what they'll
do, they'll lay that one block down on the footer. And then
they'll join that one to this footer going this way, and this
block to this way, and then they'll start overlapping those blocks.
You've seen it, haven't you? And they build up the corners.
And then they put the rest of the block in there and join it
to those corner blocks. And what the corners do, they
unite the footer together and the foundation together. And
really, they unite the whole building together. That's the
thing about this building. The Lord Jesus Christ holds the
weight of it. The weight of the church rests
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's a lively stone. He's
not a dead footer and a dead foundation. He's a lively stone. The chief cornerstone. Paul said
the Lord Jesus Christ not only builds this church upon this
rock all built by church, but now he says here that he literally
is the cornerstone upon which it's built. It's His person. It's His decrees. He is God. His promises. His Word. His work. He builds it. And He builds it
upon Himself. And He's that cornerstone which
unites the whole foundation. He unites the walls. He unites
the entire building together. The church is united as one in
Him. Verse 21 says, "...in whom all
the building is fitly framed together." The house is one with
the foundation. That's unity, ain't it? Still
talking about unity, you see. Brother Larry quoted that verse
of Scripture in Isaiah chapter 28. In verse 16, thus saith the
Lord God, Jehovah, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone. What kind of stone? Well, He
tells us, a tried stone. Oh, Jesus was tried, wasn't He?
God tried Him. The devils tried Him. The ungodly
tried Him. His own people tried Him. He's
a tried stone. He's a precious cornerstone. He's precious to God. He's valuable. He's honorable to us, every believer. And He's a sure foundation. He's steadfast. He's unmovable. He's unchangeable. Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is the foundation. So He continues and says this,
and he that believeth shall never make haste. You'll never be confounded,
you'll never be confused, you'll never be swept away when the
storm comes. For this foundation will never
sag, it'll never sink. And everything that's on it is
as secure as the foundation itself. Because the building, brothers
and sisters, is a vital part of the foundation, you see. Nothing can be added to this
foundation because it's already laid. It's late already. I tell you, men have tried to
dig it up, tear it up, dig their little footers alongside of it
and pour their own to it. It'll never work. It'll never
work. They've tried to add their own
little footers by saying immaculate conception. Succession of the apostles. We've
got a huge denomination in our day that believes in succession
of the apostles, and they think they've still got twelve of them.
We've got some today that talked about the succession of the Baptists,
haven't we, Larry? Well, the foundation brothers
have done been laid. And if you can't find it in here,
throw it away. The sand is going to wash it
away anyway. Paul is talking about unity now.
Still talking about unity. But listen to this, and I'll
close with this. I've kept you too long. Unity comes as a consequence
of something else. Unity doesn't come first. You
never create unity. Unity is always the result of
something else. That's what people are wanting
today. Unity. Let us unite. Unity comes as a result always
of what? Being in Christ. Being fellow
citizens. Being of the household. Being
in the house. Being upon this one foundation.
If you're there, you have unity. But if you're not there, there's
no unity. Unity cannot come because we
want unity and we go out and create it. Let's find some common
ground. No, the ground has to be there
to start with. And you have to be on it. Let's sing 186. Brother Glenn,
come and lead us in 186. We'll sing it without any music. 186.