I just want to read, beginning in verse 18, I mainly wanted to look at verse
21. I won't keep you very long on that verse, but I want to
begin reading Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 18. Through our Lord
Jesus Christ, we both, Jews and Gentiles, all believers, male
or female, old or young, have access by one spirit unto the
Father. Now, therefore, ye 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 together
groweth unto an unholy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also
are builded together for the inhabitation of God through the
Spirit." Now, I realize it is somewhat difficult for me to
take up right in the midst of a chapter like this. So I want
to tell you two or three things about this chapter. I made mention
of this a week or two ago at the conference. If you're like
me, you won't remember that. But the Apostle was writing to
these Ephesians. Most of them were Gentiles. And
most of the commentary says, probably rightfully so, that
Most of these believers were not only Gentiles, but many of
them were slaves. Paul mentions that in the 6th
chapter. So he wasn't writing to people
that could not understand what he was writing. He was writing
to people that the Lord had saved by his grace, and he was writing
to them basically in this 2nd chapter to remind them mainly
of these three things. He tells them there in verse
11 to remember. call to remembrance these things,
and one was how their condition had changed. They were dead in
trespasses and sins, and the Lord had quickened them. He had
given them life. Now, that's a tremendous change.
And he says that again in verse 5. Even when we were dead in
sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ. by grace are you
saved. A change from death unto life. I think sometimes it would be
a good study for us maybe to carry a little pen and a pad
with us as we are on our job or around the house as we think
of some of these scriptures that describe to us what a drastic
change that has taken place in the life of the child of God.
from what he was before to what he is now. He even goes there
in verse 10, that familiar verse, and he says, You're his workmanship. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. A new creation. I've often said
that our Lord's not in the remodeling business. He doesn't even tear
down and build a house in the same place. It's all new, isn't
it? a new creature in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is such a drastic change sometimes,
brothers and sisters, you and I have difficulty realizing.
Isn't that not so? To be a new creature? He mentions all of these things
in the Old Testament and the New Testament, showing us what
a drastic change has taken place. When he talked about the new
covenant burial in Ezekiel 36, about taking us and washing us
from our filthiness, from all our idols, cleansing us. And
he said, you shall be clean. And then he says, I'm going to
take this old heart of stone out of you and I'm going to give
you a new heart, a heart of clay. I'm going to put a new spirit
within you. And then on top of that, he says,
I'm going to give you my spirit. That's a drastic change, isn't
it? And it is Paul's desire here for them not only to remember
this, but grasp what a change that the Lord has made in you,
in your condition. You are not what you used to
be. We are not what we are going to be. But thank God we are no
more what we used to be. That is how drastic this change
is. And then he goes on in verses
11 through 13, and he asks them there to remember what a position
they were in. Their position has changed. He
tells them to remember that. And he goes on to tell them in
verse 13, but now, he says in verse 12, in time past. He keeps
using that word. In time past. He doesn't want
them to get away from what they were, but he wants them to know
what they are now. where you are now, because the
Lord has saved you by his grace." Well, he says in verse 12, you
were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world. But look how things have changed.
Look how their position has changed. Now, in Christ Jesus, You who
sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You are near to God. You were
afar off from God's favor. Far off from salvation. Far off
from righteousness. But now you are near. That is your position. One of
the most difficult things that you and I can get a hold of And
seemingly, once we begin just to get a hold of it, it's so
difficult to retain the thoughts and the joy and the assurance
of this one thing, that in Jesus Christ, and because of Jesus
Christ, we are near to God. We are as near to God as His
own dear and blessed Son is, because we are in Him. By virtue
of being in Christ, we are near to God. You were far off. Why? Because you were without
Christ. You were outside of Christ. But
now you have been put in Christ, and therefore you are near, as
near as the Son of God Himself. I think this is why the Apostle
Paul loves this phrase, in Christ. That's his favorite phrase in
all his epistles. In Christ. All of it is in Christ. What is it to be saved? What
is it to be a Christian? What is it to have access to
God? To be in Christ. In Christ. That's why the Apostle
Paul said, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. And doubtless, I count all things
lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Lord,
and count them done, that I may win him," and listen to what
he says, "...and be found in him." I tell you, if you can
find yourself in Christ, you are found. My sheep was lost
But I found them. Come rejoice with me. I found
my sheep which was lost. I once was lost, but now I am
found. Do you realize your position
this evening as a child of God? Simply because you are now in
Christ, do you realize that you are near to God? And that position
will never change. Time will never change it. Circumstances
will never change it. Eternity will never change that
position. You're in Christ forever, and
therefore you're near to God. Ain't that wonderful? It is wonderful
just to think about this. You know, I think the happiest
man is not the young man, the strongest man, the richest man,
the most famous man. the most happiest man in this
world, and the happiest woman in this world, who lives daily
in the knowledge of this, that I am in Christ. I am in Christ. That is it, brothers and sisters.
That is everything. To be in Christ. To be found
in Him. And what an encouragement. Since
we are now because we are in Christ, what an encouragement
to draw near to God. If I'm near there in my position,
draw near in our experience. Seeing that we have a great high
priest on the right hand of God, let us draw near. Let us draw
near. We don't have to earn the right
to be there. It doesn't depend on the strength
of our faith, the greatness of our knowledge. But to know we're
in Christ, therefore we have access in him. and by Him all
the time, always. The Father would have us coming
to Him all the time. The door now, access, is free
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Draw near to God. He wants us to remember that.
And then he goes ahead here and talks about the privileges in
verse 19. Not only their condition has
so changed, their position has changed in verse 19. Look what
privileges they now have. Now, therefore, you are no more
strangers, but you are of the household of God. Strangers here
has to do with blood relation. Has to do with the family. So
Paul says you are no more strangers. But you're of the household.
You're the family of God. No more are you foreigners and
aliens, but you're fellow citizens with the saints. Fellow citizens
with the saints. Citizens of heaven. That's what Paul's talking about.
You're citizens of heaven. I can't get a hold of what I'm
trying to tell you to get a hold of, and I can't get a hold of
it myself. That's why Paul said in chapter 1, you know, I'm praying
for you, that the Lord would give you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation. He goes on in chapter 3 and says
that you might be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man. I tell you, to get a hold of
these wonderful truths and live in the assurance and joy of them,
it takes the Holy Spirit to uphold us in this. Fellow citizens,
we're the saints. I imagine Paul probably had on
his mind the privileges in being a Roman citizen. That was a big
deal in that day, to be a citizen of Rome. You had all these privileges
that were available to you. You remember the time that Paul
was talking to that centurion, and that centurion, Paul told
the centurion, I'm a Roman citizen. And he looked at Paul, and he
knew he was a poor man. He said, how in the world did
a man like you become a citizen of Rome? This cost me a lot of
money. That's what that centurion said.
It cost me a lot of money to become a citizen of Rome. It
takes a big price to become a citizen of heaven. Did you know that? There's two ways, two of the
ways you became a citizen of Rome. You had to have a lot of
money and buy it. Or you had to be barned into
it. And that's what Paul told him. Paul said, I was barned
a citizen of Rome. That's the way we become a citizen
of heaven. We're barned into it. And we're
citizen at a great price. We've been purchased. It's been
bought for us. Look here in Hebrews chapter
11. If you'll hold Ephesians 2 and look over here in Hebrews
chapter 11. Citizens. Fellow citizens. Someone said something to the
effect that in this great universe, there are these two communities.
One is a worldly community, and one is a heavenly community.
Only two communities in this great universe. This worldly
community has its course, it has its laws, it has its associations,
it has its purposes and all of that. And this heavenly community
has its course. It has its laws. It has its association. But there is as vast a difference
between this earthly community and that heavenly community as
daylight and darkness, life and death. There are no communities
in this world that are so distinct as this worldly community and
heavenly community. I saw the other day someone was
talking about they had moved this radar system, however they
do that, over North Korea. And they said it was amazing
when you flashed on that country and got photographs of it, that
it was dark. It's just all dark there. It's
a horrible place to live. And they were contrasting it
with our country, how light it is. There is a contrast between
our country and in North Korea. I say if we went there, we'd
realize it, wouldn't we? But there's no comparison between
this worldly community and that heavenly community. And there's
no comparison in being a citizen of this world as opposed to being
a citizen of heaven. Two different communities. And
that's what Paul is trying to get these Ephesians to see. What
a privilege that you've been brought into. You were citizens
of this world and you were strangers to heaven. But he said, now you're
no longer citizens of this worldly community, but you're fellow
citizens with the saints in heaven. Over in Philippians chapter 3,
verse 20, where he talks about our conversation being in heaven. When you and I think about that
word conversation, we think about talk, don't we? I had a conversation
with somebody this morning. Sometimes that's what that word
means, but back then, mainly the word meant your whole conduct,
your manner of living in this world. But in that particular
verse, it means citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where we have a permanent
residence at, in heaven. And here's what Abraham and all
the saints of the Old Testament desired, to go home. to go home. And look what he
said in chapter 11 of Hebrews, in verse 10. This is speaking
of Abraham. He looked for a city which hath
foundation, whose builder and maker is God. Now, sometimes
when you see city, it's speaking of the church. But you look at
this in its context. This is speaking of a heavenly
country. a city that God had prepared
for his people. Look in verse 13, speaking of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, and those saints, they all died
in faith, not having received the fulfillments of the promises,
but having seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country." Now, your reference
there may say what mine does, homeland. They seek a country. They seek a homeland. And truly,
if they had been mindful of that country from which they came
out, they may have had opportunity to have return, but now they
desire a better country that is not heavenly. Wherefore, God
is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for
them a city, a permanent dwelling." And look over in chapter 13.
He's talking about this city. Look in chapter 13, verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the count, bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city. But we seek one to come. You know, they sell us, and it's
probably so because Paul, in this book, spoke of the sacrifices
still being offered daily. So Jerusalem was probably still
standing at this time. And what Paul was telling them
here, these Hebrew Christians that had been put out of the
temple, he said, go ahead and go forth without the count. Come
out of that religious mess up there. That's not your permanent
dwelling. Jerusalem that's here upon this
earth is going to be ransacked and the temple destroyed. You
and I are seeking a permanent residence. We're seeking a city
that already, he said, we're citizens of. Fellow citizens
of heaven. I think some of us have been
out of the country. You stay out a few days. One
time I went to Mexico, was down there for a few days, and I had
people to tell me about, if you ever go out of this country for
any length of time, you'll see how it feels to love this country
and to be a citizen of this country. And I can understand perfectly
why. You take an American citizen in some foreign country and they're
kidnapped for months or maybe years and they come back and
they fly in on the tarmac and they get out and they get down
and kiss the ground. I can understand that. Can't
you? They tell us sometimes too that foreigners, when they come
to this country, You see them sometimes, you know, on the videos.
You see a room like this and they're full of people that have
come from other countries. They've taken the oath to become
citizens of this country. And they look like a bunch of
high school children. You know, they're at graduation.
Oh, they're so happy and they're smiling. A citizen of this great
nation. What a privilege. And they say
that some of those people make the best citizens. because they love this country
and realize where they came from. And they love it sometimes more
than those who are born here. And I'll tell you this, brothers
and sisters, you and I who are born in this country and were
aliens from heaven, and now our citizenship has been changed
and we're citizens of that heavenly country, I just about bet anything
that when we get there, we'll love it more than those who were
born there, those holy angels. Don't you imagine? And I tell
you this, we'll feel just as home there as they do. I love that old song. On Jordan's
stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair
and happy land where my possessions lie. Not only has your citizenship
been moved, your possessions have been moved. All o'er those wide extended
plains shines one eternal day. There God the Son forever reigns
and scatters night to day. No chilling winds or poisonous
breath can ever reach that helpful shore. Sickness, sorrow, pain
and death are felt and feared no more. When shall I reach that
blessed home? And my Father's face I'll see,
and in His bosom rest. I'm bound for the promised land.
Oh, who will come and go with me? Who will come and go with
us? Maybe you come in here this evening. And maybe your citizenship's
still in this world. Maybe you're far off from God. Maybe you're a citizen of this
world, a citizen that's going to perish just like this world. Maybe you've come in here this
evening and you're lost without hope and without Christ. Well,
I tell you, there's one that can change your citizenship. That's one that can give you
life eternal and make you new and wash you. And you'll leave here this evening
singing with us, I am bound for the promised land. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? Oh, what a privilege. But he
goes on in chapter 2 and verse 19, in the last portion of that,
and look what he says. I think this was probably a greater
privilege still. He says you are no more strangers,
but you are of the household of God. In chapter 3, he says
you are the family, the whole family. And I love the way the
Apostle says that in verses 9 and 10 of chapter 3. He said the
whole family in heaven and earth are named. The Lord has one family. Part
of them is with him in heaven, and the rest of them is upon
this earth. And, brothers and sisters, do you think those in
heaven are loved any more than the family upon earth? The top
lady said, Are those in heaven any more secure than those upon
earth? They are one family, the same
family. I was reading a book, J.C. Rowell, and the title of it is,
Will We Know One Another in Heaven? That's all right. That's a good
time. It's good to study on that. But I think it would be awful
disappointing, and it would be a downgrade to say we know one
another here. I know my family. When you get
together at your family reunions, don't you know your siblings?
And don't you feel right at home among them? You're not standoffish,
are you? It's your family. Why, sure,
we'll know one another in heaven. How did Peter and James and John
know Moses and Elijah? They had never seen them before,
but they knew them. I tell you what, there will be
no hesitation. When you and I get there by His
grace, there will be no hesitation whatsoever walking right up to
Holy Samuel and say, Dear Brother, it is good to see you. And shaking
Daniel's and hugging Mary Magdalene's neck and visiting with Abigail,
your dear sister. I think that's the way it's going
to be. Why do I say that? Paul said not only that you're
citizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints. Not
only the saints here on this world, but those who are in heaven.
Not only the family on earth, but that family which is in heaven.
That's a wonderful thought, brothers and sisters. Paul looks at this church under
the analogy of a building. He goes there in the citizens
in verse 20. He's been talking about citizens,
fellow citizens, and then the household, the family. And he just naturally there goes
into verse 20 and says, well, if you've got a family, you've
got to have a house. So he goes to the house, the church, under
the analogy of a building. You are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. How firm a foundation! What is
this? It is just the truth. It is just
the Word of God. That is what this foundation
is. What the prophets wrote, what the apostles wrote, the
New Testament, the Old Testament, that is the foundation upon which
the church is built. And Jesus Christ Himself is this
cornerstone. Down home we lived in a no-log
house. I was raised in a no-log house, a huge log house, but
it had cornerstones. We don't build them like that
anymore. But they set up cornerstones. And they ran a big beam from
one corner to the other corner. And that's what they set the
house on. And that cornerstone, those cornerstones, was carrying
the weight of that entire house. And the cornerstones bound the
foundation together. It joined beam to beam. Brought it all together. Jesus
Christ is the cornerstone. The church is built upon him. And the church is bound together
in him. This is the foundation, but it's
all about him. Old and new testament. But I
want to go to verse 21 right quick because I've got to finish
this. Here's what he says about this church. under the analogy
of a building, look what he says, "...in whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto an unholy temple in the
Lord." Now, what do we see, first of all, about this building?
First is this. It is in him. It is in him. The building is fitly framed
together in Him. It all comes back to being in
Him. The church is in Him, being built up in Him. Another place,
it is said that it is built by Him. Upon this rock I will build
my church. Another place, the church is
built upon Him. There in verse 20. I have laid
the foundation, Paul said, and another man builds their own.
But take heed how you build. upon this foundation, because
nobody else can lay this foundation that is already laid, which is
Christ. He is the foundation the church
is built upon. And he says here in verse 21,
in whom all thee buildeth. In whom all thee buildeth. Why is that so important? There
is just one builder. The Lord Jesus is not in the
process of building a house and project. He has one building.
All the building is built up in him. The church is in him. Now, why is that so important?
Well, you know why it's so important. We've had people in our day to
try to tell us who's in the church, and they've got all of these
people that's never heard the name of Christ. They've never
heard the gospel of Christ. They're over there in the tribes
and they believe there is a God and they do the best they can.
So they're in the church. They're in the body of Christ.
Paul said that's just not so. There's just one body. And it's
that single body that is being built in Christ. It's the building,
not several buildings, just the building. We had a family that
came to our church for a while, a year or so. His wife and three
sons. Such a nice family. I enjoyed
them. And he came up to me one day and he said, Aren't we Baptists?
And I said, well, if we were anything, I guess we'd be Baptist,
but no, in name, we're not Baptist. And he said, well, I'm leaving.
I said, I said, why would you leave? He said, because we're
not Baptist. I said, you believe I'm preaching
the gospel? Yeah. Yeah, I believe you're
preaching the gospel. I said, you believe that I'm
saved? I mean, you, you know, as much as you can discern that.
What about the people that you fellowship with? Do you believe
this? Yeah. I said, do you believe we're going to heaven? He said,
yes, but we won't be together there. He said, you folks will
be outside and we'll be inside. The building. The building. One building. If men would just
listen to what Paul said, the building, all the building. It's in Christ. It's being built
by Christ. It's being built upon Christ. And that should end the debate,
shouldn't it? The building is one. And if you're
in that building, Christ puts you there. And notice how he describes the
building of this building. in whom all the building fitly
framed together." That word they tell us is the only time it's
used in the entire Bible. It means close-jointed together. All these stones are close-jointed
together. Sometimes we read, of course
you've probably read this, over in 1 Kings chapter 6. Remember when they were building
the house of the Lord? It's amazing how they built that.
They sent these skilled masons up in the quarries, the stone
quarries, and they'd take their saws and their hammers and their
chisels and they would go up there and they would saw out
these huge stones. And they'd measure them and chisel
them. And they would bring them down here to the temple and they
would fit them right in there. And they always just fit. They
never had to trim them, never had to use a chisel or a hammer.
They always just fit. And the Lord told them to do
that because He said, when you fit that stone in there, I don't
want any sound of hammers and saws and chisels. All the racket takes place up
there in the quarries. That's what happens when the
Lord separates us from this quarry. He comes to the heart. And that's
when you begin to hear the racket. When he begins to separate you
and chisel on you and put the hammer of his gospel to you.
And then, when he's finished that, he brings you and he puts
you in his church, in his building. And then everything is quiet.
It's quiet. I've never remastered a pastor,
but I bet you all I bet you folks don't have a big, thick book
of rules that you've got together and drawn up to tell where you
go, when you can go, and what you can say, and how short your
men's hair is, and how long your women's dress. Have you got a
book like that here? How do you make it? Why aren't
you fussing, fighting about it? Why is it so quiet? Why aren't you folks getting
mad and jumping up and running off? Why are you so quiet? I'll tell you the rack it's done
over with. The chiseling, the hammering, the shaping, the molding. That's done past as far as getting
into this church is concerned. Secret. Up in the quarries of
your heart. Now He's brought you here. And
you just fit, don't you? Isn't that amazing? You just
fit. Paul said it's fitly framed together. You don't even have
to put mortar in that joint. There's no room for any mortar
that can grow old and fall out. It's just one rock against another. Fitly framed together. Jo has a favorite TV program
she watches. HGTV I think is the name of it.
And you brothers know why your wives watch that. But we were
watching. We were watching them build this
house, a rock house. We were watching it because we
were there. Down in Lookout Mountain there at Chattanooga. And so
they had this on TV and we were watching them build it. And there
was two things I noticed in the building of that house. This
guy brought a huge pile of stone. And I got to noticing that guy.
He would pick up a stone and he'd look at the wall and he'd
hold it up and he'd chip a little bit and look at it. Sometimes
he'd set it right in there. Boy, it sat right in there. Other
times he'd chip around and look on it and he'd throw it back
on the heap. He didn't take every stone. He
chose those stones carefully to just fit in there. And he
was a wise mason. He knew how to fit them in. And
as I was watching that, I thought of that song of Fanny Crosby
said, Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others you're calling, while you're chipping and fitting others
in this church, Lord, don't pass me by. This is the sovereign architect
that's putting these stones in this building. The stones aren't
in there by their free will. It's the choice of this architect. And you can see it in the congregations. You can see it. I've seen it. It seemed like the Lord looks
at a person, picks him up and deals with him somewhat and throws
him back. And he's gone forever. Then you have others. He gets
a firm hold upon that stone and he turns it and he looks and
he chips and he looks at it some more. He's got control of it. And finally, he says, this is
the one of my choice. And he puts it in that wall and
it just fits. He sets every member, every stone
in this building as it pleases Him. Ain't that a privilege,
brother? Ain't that a privilege, sister?
To be in this church that the Lord is building? Can you imagine
how these slaves felt? And now they're told, you're
in this glorious You're in this church. I noticed something else
as Joel and I were sitting and watching that building too, was
this. When he was building it, it didn't look good at all. The
lady kept coming out and she was saying, that's never going
to do. That's never going to do. And I told Joel, I said,
boy, I don't blame her for saying it. All colors, all shapes, all
sizes. And the wall looked awful. But when he finished with it,
I'm telling you, I could not believe it when he was finished
with it. It looked like while he was building
it, it was weak and looked like in one place it was bowed and
it looked like you could just go up there and pull it down. But when he was finished with
that, I was amazed. There's no wonder the Lord refers
to Zion as the perfection of beauty. And we can't see it now,
brothers and sisters. But in his eyes, he knows what
he's doing. And when he's finished with this
church, it will be a glorious church built by the hand of the
sovereign architect. And notice this about this. This
is amazing how the apostle says this. In whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth. Ain't that something to use about
a building? Now, I'm not a carpenter, and that may just be the way
they talk about buildings. But if I go by a building that
someone is building, I say, Boy, it's going up. It's growing up. It's increasing. I've never referred
to a building being built as growing. It sounds organic, something
that has life to it. It's growing. It's breathing. It's alive. There's no wonder
Peter said, you're lively stones. You build up a spiritual house. Paul just about, I don't know
what you call this, but he almost ran his analogy together. One place he talked about being
rooted and grounded. He does it there. But you just
can't take one thing and describe the glory and the beauty of what
the Lord is doing with his people. Paul said it's like citizens.
No, he said it's like the family. No, he said it's like a building.
No, he said it's more than that. It's growing, it's alive. You
know why, and you all may emphasize this here, but we're a pastor,
we don't emphasize church membership. I believe in the local church
as much as anybody. You must find your local church,
a gospel church, to come and gather and worship the Lord with
your brothers and sisters. But down home, when I was growing
up down home, all the churches had these ledgers and everybody's
name was on the book. And when somebody got mad, they
left and sent a letter back and said, I want my letter. Remove
my letter. We never emphasized that. We
shouldn't emphasize that for this reason. It diminishes the
glory of what this church really is. It's alive. It's not having your
name on a book. Let's get over it. Notice how he says that, and
I'm almost finished. Notice what he said. In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto them holy temple. Here he changes again. You would
have thought that he would have said, since he's talking about
the family, that this house, this is a beautiful house for
the family to live in. Because he's talking about the
family of God. But instead of saying a house, he says now it's
a temple. The church is a temple. You remember
what took place when they built the temple? That was a beautiful
place. They had the priesthood. They
had the sacrifices. They would offer those sacrifices
to the Lord, and sometimes the Shekinah glory would come down,
and it would fill that temple. Sometimes it would so fill the
temple, they couldn't minister before the Lord. It was His temple,
His place that He dwelled. Paul says here now that the Lord
don't dwell in that earthly temple up at Jerusalem anymore. He says
now, the church. You're His temple. And you know we have a priesthood,
don't we? We're a kingdom of priests. We offer sacrifices,
heart praises, giving thanks to the Lord in the name of Christ
Jesus. We're a holy priesthood. And
our prayer is, O God, come and fill us. Fill me. I'm a temple. Fill you. Fill this local temple. Fill
your church. Fill it with what? Fill it with
yourself. Let us know your presence. Fill
us, Lord. Oh, I wish we could experience
again. what they experienced in the early church, when they
prayed and the place was shaken. But the scripture says they were
all filled. That's the temple of the Lord.
They're filled. I was listening to someone not
long ago and he was talking about the temple being rebuilt there
at Jerusalem and the priesthood being set up and all that. And I thought, what a downgrade that
would be. What an awful downgrade. Wouldn't it be awful if someone
came up to you and said, Boy, if you can just get over to Jerusalem.
The presence of God is there. He's filled that temple over
there. No, no, no, brothers and sisters. Those days are gone.
This is God's temple. I will dwell in them. I'll be
their God and they shall be my people. Isn't that amazing? The eternal
God dwelling in us, his people. And he describes it this way.
A holy temple. A holy temple in the Lord. Aren't
you glad that he didn't say a large temple? That would sure eliminate
us up home. But he said a sacred temple.
A holy temple. What makes this temple holy?
Well, he tells us, in the Lord. That's what makes it holy. It's
in the Lord. Brothers and sisters, I have
quit telling people. I have made so many people self-righteous.
Trying to teach them how to be holy. How to be more holy. I've just come to the conclusion
that I've got a lot of people to taste on holiness and just
got them to be self-righteous and legalistic. You know what
I love to hear? I love to hear this. The church
is holy because it's in the Lord. As He puts you in this church, Has He done His work in you and
actually put you in His church? Has He washed you? Has He justified
you by His grace? Is He your justification? Is
He your sanctification? Are you in Christ this evening? Then you know what my advice
would be. Just live that out. in your daily
life. If you're in this church, you're
in a holy temple. Just live in the light of that.
Realize that. And I'm telling you, as far as
I know, your life in this world will never be any more holy than
just living out what you are. Don't you wish sometime that
we could get beyond trying and forcing and prying? I wish we could sometime reach
the point where we could earnestly say, I am going to search my
soul and find out who I really am and what I am and what I love
and what I want, and I'm going to live like that. And when you search the depths
of your soul, if you're in this body, in this building, you're
holy because you're in the Lord. And all that takes the burden
away. What am I? I'm in Christ. I'm
just going to live like it. What do I want better than anything
in this world? Nothing but to please Him and
walk with Him. Ain't that a blessed Scripture? Bless the scripture. May God
bless it to your hearts.