Well, I wonder if there aren't at least a couple
of thoughts about that. In the first place, it
may have been because he knew that it would become
the focus of devotion rather than he himself.
That is the tendency of mankind to worship the
material and to ignore the spiritual. So perhaps
he did not want an ornate, permanent structure
put up. as a temple. He didn't order it, at least,
because he knew that that building would become
the focus of affection and devotion and worship.
A second reason may be that he wanted to establish
a pattern for us to remind us regarding the pilgrim
nature of life. God was content to be the pilgrim
God. in the sense that he was content to dwell
in the tent or the tabernacle and did not insist
upon a permanent building, the temple. That tent
would certainly be a pattern for us who are called
pilgrims and strangers in this world. But God
did allow a temple to be constructed nonetheless.
It was not his order. It was an idea that was
given birth within the heart of David, whose
heart was after God's own heart. Out of sincere
love for the Lord, and perhaps embarrassment
about the fine quarters that he himself had,
David thought of the idea of a beautiful building
for God's dwelling. He had placed the Ark of
the Covenant in a tent, it says in Jerusalem.
He himself lived in a beautiful palace that was
built for him by Hiram, king of Tyre. As he saw
the contrast between his own quarters and those
of the Lord, he was smitten with conviction,
apparently, and felt that God needed something
more than that. Therefore, he wanted to make
a temple. for the Lord. God thanked David but
turned him down because David was a man of blood.
He was a warrior. God said, David, I will not
allow you to build me a house. I will allow your
son, your seed, to build a temple for me. But
because this was in your heart, I will build
for you a house. And God didn't mean there a
physical building. He meant descendants, a household,
a family. And God established a covenant between
David and his seed that is everlasting. The nature
of man is to make things as permanent as possible.
Have you ever noticed that? We're all that way.
Perhaps it's because we realize that we ourselves
are so passing. temporal. But the nature of God,
on the other hand, his attention is primarily
to focus on the spiritual because he is eternal.
God is at work today constructing a new temple,
a spiritual temple in which he chooses to dwell
and to be both revealed and worshipped during
this age. There is no longer a temple in Jerusalem.
It was destroyed by the Roman armies in 70 A
.D., but God had left it long, long before that.
Today God is building a new temple, and because
his attention is focused on the spiritual, yes,
this temple is a spiritual temple. The difference
between the temple of Israel's day and the temple
of today is this. We can say that Israel had
a temple. Today the church is a temple. Theirs
was composed of stone, wood, and precious metals.
The church is composed of that which is eternally
precious, people, living stones. We can say that
the Jews entered their temple to worship, but
New Testament Christians are themselves a worshiping
temple. Our text begins with the two words, so
then. And what Paul means to do here is to draw
a line of summation. He wishes to sum up what
he has been saying to this point in the previous
paragraph. regarding the new relationship between
the Jew and the Gentile in Jesus Christ. I remind
you again, he is addressing mostly Gentiles in
the Ephesian church, as he would be addressing
our church today, composed mostly of Gentiles
by ancestry. He says, so then, you are no longer
strangers and aliens. You are no longer short
-term transients. You are no longer legal residents
of a foreign land. These words summarize what
he says back in verse 12, where he says, excluded
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to
the covenants of promise. He says, you are no
longer what you were, Gentiles by birth. Then
he says, you are fellow citizens with the saints
and are of God's household. So what he says is
that all believers, Gentile or Jew, are now described
as fellow citizens, not of Israel. Although we
are the spiritual seed of Abraham through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the book
of Galatians. We are not the physical seed of
Israel. We are not fellow heirs with the nation
of Israel in the national material promises that
God gave to them in the Old Testament, and which,
by the way, he will yet fulfill to them in the
coming kingdom. But he says we are fellow citizens
with the saints. That word saints probably refers
to the early believers in this age who were primarily
Jewish in their ancestry. Of course, in the very
beginning they were all Jewish in the city of
Jerusalem in the day of Pentecost. And in the
days following, all Jewish. And then gradually
it went out from there to the Samaritans. And
then by Acts chapter 10 to those who were Gentiles,
full -blooded Gentiles. But he says now to these
who were pagans, who were Gentiles worshiping
undoubtedly in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus,
one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
He says to them, having now been converted to
faith in Jesus Christ, you are fellow citizens
with the saints. You are a part of the same nation
with those who were earlier called out, and separated
unto God, the saints. As I am sure you are aware,
the word saints in the Bible does not refer to
a group of people who have been declared to be
saints by some earthly institution. The word
saints in the Bible refers to all of those who
are the lords, who have been called out, who
have been separated from the world and from sin
to himself to be his own. And so he says to you
and to me who come from Gentile parentage, he
says that now we are fellow citizens. No longer
are we excluded from the nation, but now we're
part of God's new nation. We're fellow citizens.
And not only so, he says we are of God's household.
Before we were separated from Christ. Before,
according to verse 12, we were without God in
the world. But now he tells us that we are God's
kinsmen, God's family. I like that song that
the Gaithers wrote. I'm so glad I'm a part of
the family of God. That's exactly what God calls
us. He calls us his household. his kinsmen, his
loved ones. He has done that, by the way, through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that whether we are
Jew or Gentile in our ancestry, we are now born
into God's new family. And we, though we have
ancestry yet, are in another sense without ancestry.
in that we are a part of God's family, the first
generation. God doesn't have second generation
family members. We're all directly born into
that family. If you have trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are of the family, the household
of God. Now we who are saved are furthermore
called in our text today the new temple of God.
Now, I want to emphasize again that that word
saved is a contemporary term. You can find it
used in the newspaper, in books. It is not an
antiquated, outdated term. It still has meaning
in our language today, and it still has meaning
in New Testament theological sense. It goes back
to verses 8 and 9 of this chapter, which we studied
earlier. It says, You are having been saved or
you have been saved through faith and by grace.
It is the grace of God that saves us, not our
own works, not our own pedigree, not our own
attempts at religion. But it is God's grace and
forever God's grace. Not grace that we earn and
that we pile up bit by bit hoping to have enough
someday to please God. But grace in which God
is rich, it says in verse 7. Grace that God has
lavished upon us in Christ. Grace that requires
nothing of us in terms of our input. It only
asks us to receive the gift. The gift of God.
Which God provides himself through the cross
of Calvary. And which we receive then through
faith. We who are the saved by grace through
faith are the new temple of God. In our text,
we can examine several parts of the temple, and
that's what I'd like to do today and next week.
Notice first with me the substructure. That is
the foundation. There is not a more important
part of a building than the foundation. I recall
when we were building this structure, how long
it took them to put the foundation over here
on this wall. Because they had to go down beside
the old building that was here and tie that in,
but yet go down deeper so that they could build
a foundation suitable for a higher building over
here, should the Lord lead us to build that someday.
There's already a foundation in here for a structure
two or three stories tall. A CE building that
we've envisioned over on that side. It took a
long time for that foundation to be put in. I
remember how it rained. I began to wonder if
the rainbow still had meaning at times back when
we were building this structure. Because that
hole there would fill up with water. It had to
be pumped out, then dried out. And it seemed
like there was one problem on another trying
to get the foundation in for this building. The
foundation is critical. I believe it was the
John Hancock building in Chicago when it was
constructed 20 years ago, which had to be reconstructed
in its foundation. They dug the hole, they put
in a foundation, and got up so high, and then
they discovered, somehow, belatedly, that the
foundation was not sufficient, and they had to
go all the way back down to the foundation and
reconstruct that. to hold that gigantic building
that goes up over 100 stories high on Chicago's
lakefront. The foundation of the church is likewise
absolutely critical. It had to be put in right
when it was put in. Now it's called in verse
20 the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
This new temple, this living temple, the church,
has been built upon a foundation, the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. These are not the
Old Testament prophets, Malachi and Haggai and
Habakkuk and all of those. These are New Testament
prophets, those who were the spokesmen for God
in those early days when there was no written
revelation. They gave an oral revelation from
God. Their spiritual gift was to know the mind
of God, and the Spirit of God gave them utterance
of direct revelation from the Lord. In that sense,
there are no prophets today. The apostles were
those who are closely associated with the Lord
Jesus Christ and his ministry, who saw him after
his resurrection from the dead, and who were
commissioned by him. There are not apostles today.
I have a good friend that I went to school with
who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. And although
he has not told me this, he has told some mutual
friends that he is an apostle. Well, God bless
him if he thinks he's an apostle. But he isn't.
Because apostles were limited to those early
days, just as the prophets were. They were part
of the foundation, you see. And once the foundation
is laid, you don't keep laying a foundation.
You go on from there. When the usefulness of
the apostles and prophets was passed, they ceased
being. They were no longer on the scene any longer
because they were not needed. What does it mean
when it says the foundation of these people?
Well, it could mean, and legitimately so, the
foundation in the sense of the revelation which
was given through them. Some of that is written
down here. Not everything that God gave in Revelation
in those days was written down. This, the inspired
word of God, is his written revelation to us.
It came to us through these people. This foundation
could mean that it was the foundation they laid
through the revelation from God which they gave.
God is no longer today giving revelation, by
the way. I'm sorry about those who claim to have
Ramah's today or give Ramah's. Spoken words from
God are those who claim to have prophecies and
say, Thus saith the Lord. I remember getting
a magazine from an evangelist down in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Not the one that's been in the news
recently. That's a whole other sermon. But another
one, and on the inside of his magazine, it said
in the front cover, as you open the page, it
said, Thus saith the Lord. And then he wrote
his editorial for the month. Baloney. That wasn't
thus saith the Lord, that was thus saith that
evangelist. God is not giving revelation today.
We preach the revelation of God. The foundation
is laid in the revelation which these people
gave. But I think that the meaning here is probably
a little different than that, though I think
that's a legitimate point. And it is that they
themselves, these apostles and prophets, at least
in the figure that Paul uses here, were the foundation.
They themselves were the foundation. That doesn't
mean that the most important part of it, they're
not. But they are the foundation. They were the
first generation, the called people of God who
were the foundation for what God has built during
this age. Because it goes on then to call Jesus
Christ the cornerstone. That's still part of
the substructure. Jesus Christ himself, the cornerstone.
Now that is the key to the foundation. The cornerstone
was the first stone that was put down for a building.
It was a large, massive stone. It had to be put
in exactly square according to the plans of the
building because all of the other stones were
lined up with it. It was put on the corner, and
then the walls were built out from it. And of
course, if it was not put up square, then the
whole building would be cockeyed. It would be
crooked. It would not be built square. And so
the cornerstone was absolutely critical. It had
to be put in place exactly right. Jesus Christ
is the cornerstone of the church. And from him,
then, the apostles and prophets exactly line
up. to form the foundation of the church. This
word cornerstone refers to that piece which ties
together the walls. Absolutely critical. It ties
together the walls of the building. This cornerstone
is described further for us over in 1 Peter,
and I'd like you to turn there with me, and we'll
close with our look in 1 Peter this morning.
We have a vivid description of this stone given
to us. I want you to notice that the theme here
is the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3 says,
If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
So the Lord is the one who is in view when he
says in verse 4, 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, 4, And
coming to him. as to a living stone. You notice
that? It calls him first here a living stone.
He is not a cold piece of rock. He is not something
that is inanimate. He is not a personage who
lived in history and is therefore not relevant
to our day. He is a living stone. Not a stone
that once lived. But a living stone, a stone
that is alive today, that's Jesus Christ. That's
the first thing it says about him. Rejected by
men. So the second thing we see about him is
that he's also the rejected stone. Rejected by
whom? Well, by those who were the builders. Look
at verse 7 where it quotes from the Psalms. It
says, the stone which the builders rejected,
this became the very cornerstone. The builders
referred to are the leaders of the nation of
Israel in that day when Jesus was here. They
rejected him. He came to his own. His own received
him not as a deliberate act of their wills, knowing
who he was. They committed the unpardonable sin,
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They rejected
him. So he is the rejected stone in his relationship
to the nation of Israel. It's not that they overlooked
this stone. It is that they willfully rejected
him. Now going back to verse 4, he's also called
here a choice stone, a chosen stone. Again in
verse 6, he is called the same. Quoting again
from the Old Testament, this time the book of
Isaiah. He is the chosen stone. That is, he is
chosen by God. He says in chapter 1, even before
the creation of the world, this stone was chosen
by God to bring redemption to lost men. And he
would be the one upon whom God would build salvation.
The chosen stone. In verse 6, he is also called
here the precious stone. Again in verse 4, the
same. The precious stone that is of great price.
He is a stone of high honor. He is esteemed to
God. In verse 4, precious in the sight of God.
Do you notice that? How precious. Do you think
Jesus is to his heavenly father? He's the precious
stone. God looks at his son and says, well pleased.
He is a precious stone to God, but in verse 6,
he is a precious stone to us who believe in him.
A precious stone. He who believes in him shall
not be disappointed. We who know the Lord Jesus
Christ call him precious and highly esteemed.
And then again in verse 6, he is called the cornerstone.
He is called the chief cornerstone, the very
cornerstone in verse 7. There is no cornerstone
but him. He is the one in whom it all rests.
It all lines up with him. Without him it falls
apart. He is above all others and uniquely so.
the chief cornerstone. But there is another description
of him in verse 8, a stumbling stone. Not only
is he a rejected stone in verse 7, and a cornerstone,
but in verse 8 it says, a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense. For they stumble because
they are disobedient to the word and to this
doom. they were also appointed. Those who refuse
the Lord Jesus Christ, those who reject the Lord
Jesus Christ, must see him as a stumbling stone,
for he will cause them to stumble. And those
who stumble over him, he will roll upon and crush.
He is a rock of offense. In John chapter 7, verse
43, it says, There was division among the people
because of him. The Lord Jesus Christ, because
he is the stone, God's stone, will bring offense
and division among men. And those who stumble
over him stumble, it says, to their own doom,
to which they are appointed. That doesn't mean
that God has chosen them to be damned. What it
means is that those who stumble over him, who
are disobedient to the word, are appointed to
doom. There is no recourse for them. There is
no other way to God. They reject Jesus Christ.
to their own damnation. One thing about a foundation,
a substructure, it's never changed. It's permanent.
Unless you destroy the whole building. God's
way of salvation, God's chief cornerstone, God's
choice stone, his precious stone, his living
stone, has never changed. God's way of salvation
has not changed in 2 ,000 years since the Lord
Jesus Christ died and rose again. People get
saved today by grace through faith as they have
through the centuries before. I want to ask you
a question personally. Is he the stone in your
life? Is he the cornerstone upon which you've
built? In another place, Paul uses a little different
figure of speech, but the idea is the same. He
says, For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the
only foundation for life. Is he your foundation?
My friend, when he is the foundation, he holds
your life up. It doesn't mean you're going to
be trouble -free, but it means you'll stand.
You know what the proof is that a person is saved?
It's that he continues in the faith. You say,
well, I know this person who said he was saved,
and today he's a reprobate. Today he curses God,
he denies. Listen, just count it. That person
was likely not saved at all. If he is still a
Christian, God is going to turn him around. But
because of his profession, outwardly, we have
to say he never built upon the foundation. He
is an apostate. He professed something from which
he fell away. He was never saved. The test that
a person is genuinely saved is that he's built
on the stone. And he may have ups and downs,
but he continues. He goes on. He perseveres.
Is that your testimony? Is that where you are
today? Does your life have surety? Stability?
Is there continuance in your testimony? There's
a serious thing to stumble against this stone.
It simply says in beautiful language here, This
precious value, then, is for you who believe.
You who believe. If you've not believed on him,
will you today? Let's pray. Father, I pray that
in the closing seconds of this service, if there
is some friend here who has never made the Lord
Jesus the foundation of his life, the chief,
cornerstone of his life. If he or she has built
upon some other shaky foundation, I ask that
you expose that now. Make it clear so that faith
may genuinely be placed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the living stone, and that life can be built
eternally secure. In Jesus' name, amen. I have
a very dear friend who is a missionary in Mexico.
A week ago, Friday, he was riding his bicycle
to an appointment near Puebla when he hit a car
head -on. He was flipped off his bicycle and
crashed into the windshield of the car. He had
a biker's helmet on, which probably saved his
life, but left him with brain damage. He was
in the hospital for a couple of days in Puebla.
One of the men that he was discipling in his
church in Puebla was a neurosurgeon and operated
twice on Bruce, once on Friday and again on Saturday
night. They decided on Monday he was getting
pneumonia, and they had to rush him to the United
States. They got a plane to come, an ambulance
jet, to fly him to Dallas, Texas, to a hospital
there. Just before they left the hospital, his
family was gathered around the bed. They'd been
called in from all over the United States to
come because they didn't know if Bruce would
last the weekend. And his family gathered around
the bed as they were preparing to move him out
to the plane, not knowing if he would even live
through the trip. They opened their Bibles to
Isaiah 41, and they read. And for the first time
since he'd undergone surgery, he mumbled something.
And Brent, his son, leaned down and said, Dad,
what did you say? We couldn't understand you.
And he mumbled again, a little louder, but it
was incomprehensible, and Brent told him so.
And Bruce lifted his left arm, clenched his fist,
and said audibly for all of them to hear, Saved
by grace. My friend, when it comes down to that
point, that's the only thing that counts. That's
all it is. Are you saved by grace? Let's stand
together, please, for closing prayer. Thank you,
Father, for the salvation that you have offered
through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to all
who will come to him through faith. I want to
pray this morning for Bruce, for his recovery.
for you to raise him up and use him again in
his powerful preaching ministry and planting
churches in Mexico. Thank you for the testimony
that he gave to his loved ones around his bed
a week ago. And Father, I pray that if some friend
here would be lost at that point and facing death
without Christ, should such a thing happen to
him or her. that before that person leaves here
this morning, you would deal with them in such
a definite way that faith would be extended to
the Lord Jesus Christ, and they too could say,
saved by grace. In Jesus' name, amen. If you'd
like to talk more about that, please come quickly
as you're dismissed. I'll be standing here at
the front. We are dismissed.