Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm going to be speaking this
morning from Ephesians chapter 2 upon this subject, people of
privilege. But before we look at our text,
I'd like to invite you this Friday night, beginning this Friday
night, to our Bible conference, Sovereign Grace Bible Conference
at the Todd's Road Grace Church. Love to have you come out. We
have a nursery if you need that. And you will hear, beginning
Friday night at 7, Saturday morning at 10, Sunday evening at 6, and
Sunday morning, or Saturday evening at 6, and Sunday morning at 10,
eight different speakers bringing messages regarding the sovereign
grace of God. Now, somebody may think, well,
what do you mean by sovereign grace? Sovereign means you have
no rulers. You don't have anybody over you.
You don't share your power. God is sovereign. God is God. All of God's grace is sovereign
grace. It's saving grace. It's electing
grace. It's justifying grace. It's redeeming
grace. It's life-giving grace. It's
preserving grace. It's glorifying grace. It's grace
that saves. That's all that means. And we'd
love to have you come out beginning this Friday night and hear the
gospel of God's sovereign grace. Now, my text is found in Ephesians
chapter 2, verse 19. I'm going to read verses 19 through
22. Now, therefore, you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed, groweth
together unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also
are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." People of Privilege. Now, in some respects, I hesitate
or hesitated to give this message that title because people of
privilege can be a bad thing. You can have privileges over
other people because of the color of your skin. That's a bad thing. And there are people who are
born into privilege that don't even deserve it. There's the
privilege of wealth or the privilege of, you know, even having the
privilege of having parents who care about you and are going
to make sure you're going to do well. Some people never have
that. There's the privilege of education. Some people have privilege
just because of the way they were born, the way they look,
the beautiful people of this world. And they have advantages
because of that over some other people. And we're kind of reminded
when we think of privilege that life is not fair. There are some
people who are born into privilege, and there are some people who
are not. Life is not fair. When our forefathers said, all
men are created equal, well, all men are created equal in
the sense that they're equally sinful and needful of God's grace.
It's still true. Some come into this world more
intelligent. better looking than others and
have certain advantages because of that. Some are born into wealth
and some aren't. So I want to be careful when
I speak of people of privilege. But if there's anybody that truly
is a person of privilege, it's the believer. Oh, what God has
done for you. I Corinthians chapter 4 verse
7 says, to the believer, who maketh thee to differ from another? God did. And what do you have
that you didn't receive? Whatever it is you have, God
gave to you. God is the one who has made you
to differ. You can't give your works the
credit. You can't give your ability the credit. God made you to differ."
Now, in our text, we read beginning in verse 19, "'Now therefore
you are no more.'" He's speaking to believers. He says, "'You're
no more strangers and foreigners.'" Now, he said in verse 14 of this
or verse 12 of this same chapter, that at the 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. Now, this describes
every unbeliever, and he says, to these people that God has
saved, now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners. A stranger is one who has no
knowledge or share in something. You were strangers to Christ. You had no knowledge of Him. You had no share in Him, but
that's no more. A foreigner is one who does not
have the rights of citizenship. You know, there are certain rights
of citizenship we have as citizens of the United States that others
do not have, but he said it's no more that you're not a foreigner
anymore. He says, but here's what you
are. You are fellow citizens with
the saints. and of the household of God."
Now, I want you to think about this. He says to these Gentile
believers who before were foreigners and strangers, now he says, you're
fellow citizens with the saints. All the privileges of citizens
of the heavenly kingdom. Why? You're fellow citizens with
the saints. You know what that means? You're
a saint. You know, people talk about saints like I'm no saint.
Well, if you're a believer, you are. You're a sanctified one.
You're a holy one. Every believer is a saint of
God. That means you're chosen of God.
That means you're made holy. That means you're justified.
You stand before God without guilt. That means you're sanctified. God's made you holy. It means
you're redeemed. All your sins have been paid
for. It means you're regenerated. You've been given life before
God. You're a true saint of God and
of the household of God, a member of the family of God. Having
God as your father, having God for you, having God as your provider,
having God as your savior, a member of the household of God. Now,
talking about privilege. You were foreigners and strangers,
but now how blessed you are. You've been made a member of
the house of God. Talk about privilege. Let's go
on reading verse 20. And are built. You're not doing
the building. Christ is doing the building.
But you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Now first let's think of this
thing of you're built. Not you're building, you're built. The word built is in the passive
voice. Who does this building? Well, the Lord said in Matthew
chapter 16, thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my
church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. I'm gonna pluck every one of
my people right through its gates and bring them safely to myself.
Oh, the mighty Savior who builds his church. You know, churches
that men built, they come to nothing. Churches that he built. Now, what was this rock that
the Lord said, I'll build my church upon? Well, earlier in
this chapter, the Lord said, whom do men say that I, the son
of man, am? And they said, well, they put
you in high company. Some say you're Elijah, some
Jeremy, or one of the prophets, Jeremiah. Now, really, while
they meant that to be complimentary, it was only bringing the Lord
down. To compare Him to just a mere man, a sinful man, I don't
care who that man is, is bringing Him down. So what they said was
wrong. And then the Lord said to His
disciples, whom say ye that I am? Peter replied, Thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God. This confession of who he
is, the Lord said regarding that, blessed art thou, privileged
art thou, blessed of God art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh
and blood didn't reveal this to thee. but my Father which
is in heaven. And thou art Peter, and upon
this rock, this confession of me, will I build my church."
Now notice how it says you're built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. Now this foundation, Jesus Christ
Himself, is the foundation of Abel, of Abraham, of Jacob, of
Isaac, of Moses, of David, of Isaiah, of all the Old Testament
saints, and He is the foundation of Peter and Paul and John and
Matthew and every other New Testament saint. You see, he's the always
been and always will be the only foundation. The only way someone
is brought into the kingdom of heaven is because of the foundation,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is the most important
part of a house? The foundation. If the foundation
is no good, no matter how good the superstructure may appear,
it will not last. It will not be good. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ
the Lord. Now, the Lord gave a parable,
the parable of foundations, the parable of a man who built a
house, on the sand, no foundation. Maybe it was a beautiful superstructure,
maybe it was a palace, but whatever, it had no foundation. The only
foundation that'll last is Christ Jesus. Now, he built his house
upon this foundation, but when the rains came down from God,
when the floods came up, when the winds blew, the house collapsed
and was destroyed. You see, if your foundation is
not Christ only, you will not last. And the Lord tells of another
man who built his house upon the rock. He dug deep to have
his house upon this foundation, and when the rains came down,
when the floods came up, when the winds blew, this house stood
firm because it was on the foundation. Now, I'd like to read some scriptures
regarding this foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in
Isaiah 8, verse 14, And he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall be for a sanctuary, a holy place, a place of absolute safety,
or a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." Now, Christ Jesus
is to you one of these two things. One, a sanctuary, a hiding place,
a holy place. a place of absolute security
and salvation. Or he's a stone of stumbling,
a stone that you stumble over. You mean to tell me that all
God requires is Christ and my works count for nothing? Why?
That's going to lead to sin. That's going to lead to—that's
scandalous. Not to a believer it's not. That's the only place
he finds safety and security. But an unbeliever will always
buck at the gospel in that sense. Listen to this scripture from
Isaiah chapter 28, verse 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone. a sure foundation. He that believeth
on him shall not make haste. Now this is God the Father's
description of the foundation, His dear Son, and it's a foundation
that He laid. You and I can't lay this foundation.
All we can do is be placed upon it. But he's the one who laid
the foundation. Salvation is of the Lord. Your hand, your work has nothing
to do with this. Salvation is of the Lord. And
he says it's a tried stone. It's been tried and it's passed
the test. Everybody in him must be saved. He is a precious cornerstone. Oh, precious to God. Oh, the
value of the Son to God. Precious to the believer. He
is all in my salvation. I wouldn't dare come into God's
presence pleading anything but Him alone. How precious He is. His precious blood that puts
away all sin. His precious righteousness that
makes me perfect before God. He's a precious stone, a sure
foundation. If you're on this foundation,
your salvation is for sure, because He is a sure foundation. Oh, lean the entire weight of
your soul upon Him. Don't look in any other direction.
Now, in Matthew chapter 21, the Lord quotes Psalm 118, and let
me read it beginning in verse 42. Jesus said unto them, Did
ye never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders
rejected? Now this stone that is the only
foundation, the sure foundation, the precious foundation, is the
stone that the builders, the religious fellows, they rejected. They didn't like this stone.
They didn't like being saved by Christ alone. They didn't
like him getting all the glory and salvation. And they didn't
like him being the only foundation. And they rejected him. The scriptures
despised and rejected of men. We esteemed him not. Did you
never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders
rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous in our eyes. Now, this is the reaction of
the child of God to this foundation stone, although men reject him.
We know this stone, this sure, tried foundation stone is the
Lord's doing, and truly it's marvelous in our eyes. Now, let
me read a passage of Scripture from 1 Peter 2, where he uses
both of these quotations from Isaiah in this passage of Scripture. He says in verse 4 of 1 Peter
2, to whom come? Now, that describes a believer. He's somebody who's always coming. Not to whom you came, not to
whom you intend on coming, but to whom coming right now, present
tense. The Lord said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. This is what believers do. They
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come to him the same
way every time they come. And they're always coming to
him. And the first time they came to Christ, they came to
him as all. I'm coming to Him as all my salvation,
that all God requires of me, He looks to His Son for. In the
middle of my life, I'm coming to Him as all of my salvation.
With my last breath, I'm coming to Him as all of my salvation.
To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. Now, a Christ that's popular
with the natural man is a false Christ. The natural man hates
the Christ of the Bible. He's disallowed, indeed, of men,
but chosen of God and precious. You also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also
it's contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion, I've already
quoted that, the chief cornerstone. Never forget that the message
of the New Testament and the Old Testament is the same. You
know, there are churches and preachers that look at the Old
Testament as just character studies and the Old Bible and seldom
referred to. You can't preach the gospel and
not preach from the Old Testament. It's impossible. The message
of the Old Testament is the message of the New Testament. Jesus Christ,
the message of the New Testament, is the message of the Old Testament.
Jesus Christ, the only foundation, Wherefore, also it's contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded,
shall not be put to shame. He'll have nothing to be ashamed
of because he's justified because of the blood of Christ and the
righteousness of Christ. Now, verse 7, Unto you therefore
which believe, He is precious. Oh, the preciousness of this
stone. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, that reject
the stone, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same
is made the head of the corner. God did this. Now, what is a
cornerstone? Brings two walls together. Yes,
Christ is the cornerstone that brings Jews and Gentiles together,
but I don't think that's the real meaning. Christ is the cornerstone
that brings man and God together through His work on Calvary 3. Now, the same is made the head
of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
Now not only is He to some a precious tried quarterstone, some find
Him to be a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. They just
can't see this thing of salvation by grace. They think it's scandalous.
They can't see Christ being the only foundation. They think,
well, you've destroyed all motive for good works and a holy life,
having no understanding what good works or holy life is in
the first place. And look at what he says, being disobedient,
whereunto also they were appointed. Now somebody says, what's that
mean? Exactly what it says. They were appointed to this end. God said to Pharaoh, even for
this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my
power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. I'm not going to apologize for
what God says. I'm glad God's in control of
everything. I don't need to understand this,
but I know He controls everything and everybody, and He is completely
sovereign over the free and uncoerced actions of men, and His will
is always done. Anything less than this is not
the God of the Bible. Now, these people who reject
Christ reject the foundation? He says, well, they were appointed
to this end. Now let's go back to our text
in Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 21. In whom? In the Lord Jesus Christ,
all the building fitly framed together. perfectly framed together."
Now, this is talking about every believer, "...fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." Now, believers are
the temple of God. People talk about when Christ
returns, He's going to rebuild the temple. That is foolishness. The temple of God is the church,
every believer, also called the body of Christ. And it's fitly framed together,
perfectly framed, the work of God Himself, the building of
Christ. Now, when I hear people, preachers
particularly, they talk about the problems in the church, and
the church has too much of the world in it, and the church has
too much sin in it, and the church is weak, and the church is Now,
I understand people thinking that about themselves. I am. Somebody says, you have too much
sin in your life. I agree. I agree. You do, too. You do,
too. There's no doubt about that.
Any sin's too much, and sin is an evil thing. There's no doubt
about it. And we have too much unbelief, and we have too much
love for things that we ought. Any individual can say that,
but don't say that about the church of God. The church of
God is perfect. It couldn't be better. It's like
the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved the church and gave
himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word, that it might be a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. God's church
is perfect. Christ made God's church perfect. And God's church is the true
temple of God. Oh, don't talk about rebuilding
some kind of physical temple. That's foolishness. This is the
temple of the living God, in whom all the building fitly framed. If you're in the church, you're
in the place where God put you, and it's the perfect place. It
couldn't be any better. The whole building fitly framed
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom, verse 22,
in whom you also are builded together for inhabitation of
God through the Spirit. Every believer is the dwelling
place of God through the Spirit, Christ in you, the hope of glory. All believers without exception,
every believer individually, is the dwelling place of the
infinite living God. Now you're talking about privilege,
people of privilege. Now let me make a few closing
comments. First, this is all because of
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how every believer is
on the foundation. This is how every believer is
the temple of God. This is how every believer is
the habitation of God. It's all because of union with
the Lord Jesus Christ, an eternal union with Him. Now, that is
not something that can be understood. Just We read in Hebrews 2.11,
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one, united, not close together, but one. union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church, Paul said when he
talked about the two becoming one flesh. Second comment, here
is a reason why sin is so evil in a believer. Oh, to have God
dwelling in us? And yet, sin? Oh, how evil. How evil. There's no excuse for
sin. Oh, to be privileged. Oh, that
makes every believer long to be done with sin and be made
just like Christ. And you want to talk about privilege,
people of privilege, fellow citizens with the saints, members of God's
household built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ himself. having
all our weight pressed upon Him, being His habitation. Now, I
want to remind you we're having special services this Friday,
a Sovereign Grace Bible Conference at the Tods Road Grace Church,
and you are invited to come. We'd love to have you there beginning
Friday night at 7 o'clock, Saturday morning at 10, Saturday evening
at 6, and Sunday morning at 10, eight different speakers. Now,
we have this message on DVD and CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at todsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.