was to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. As an introduction, the church is spoken of under many figures. Human body, according to 1 Corinthians 12, 27, if you want to write these down, a foundation, 1 Corinthians 3, 9, And one we are familiar with most of all, it is known as a flock. And 1 Peter chapter 5, I want to read this one in 1 Peter 5 and verse 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by restraint, but willingly, not a filthy looker, but of a sound mind. The office of pastor is one of the most important offices that God will hold accountable, much more than a Sunday school teacher or a psalm leader or any other office. And our lesson this morning considers the building of his church. It is this we will note four things. Four things we want to look at. The first thing is we first notice the architect. The architect designs a building. He makes all the plans and blueprints. Plans are in the architect's hand and draws them. His plans show the contractor where every piece of material goes. Think about that. The architect shows the kind and quality of material to be used. Now, that second part is so important. When you get down in number, you're not as strict as who becomes a member. The church is open to any visitor. matter what they believe. But the church should consist of all people, if you're a Baptist church, that believes the Baptist doctrine, that believes the Baptist teaching. And if we do that now, then, you know, the outside world speaks of, you know, the pastor is a dictator or is ruled by a dicking board or whatever you may want to say. But nothing is left to chance or whims of the workmen. The blueprint. If you were going to build a house, you'd have a blueprint. The contractors come in and they build that house according to the blueprint. We have a blueprint for the church. What's in this book is the blueprint. We have a procedure. Person walks down the aisle to say that God has saved them and they want to be a part of this church. First job that I do before we present that individual for baptism is that we would discuss with that person. to make sure they agree with what is being taught. And that's not done very often anymore because people are so eager to get somebody in. But here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 18, God says, but now have God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. Think about that statement. So we ask ourselves, has God placed us here? We decide to go somewhere else. Is God moving us? It's not any other thing. It was God that saved me. It was God that led me to The church, it was God that taught me, and as we're talking about God, the Holy Spirit. So the church is a spiritual organization, and we are to do our very best to keep it that way. So God is the architect of his own house. The church does not belong to the members, and Monroe Baptist Church belongs to the Lord. And he adds those to the body that we need. Or we can get eager and lower our standards and anyone that, like if we need a piano player and a lady comes, I'll play the piano. We're apt to take, you know, that person in with not the same standards that God's word says. So we gotta be careful. But the main point here on this first Roman Uniform I, as I laid it out, God is the architect of his own house and Amarillo Baptist Church, physical building, but that's not the church. The church is made up of the members. Church building is where God has designated us to gather to worship. Everything about his house was determined and settled upon. It was not an afterthought. The number of stones, God knows how many members he would allow at the Edmund Road Baptist Church or any other. So that's very important, the number of stones when they would be added and where they should come from. So the notes on Roman numeral one is this. When plans are drawn, the material may be scattered all over the place. Now, we look at a physical, we go down to the lumber yard and we buy lumber or we buy stones, everything we need, but those materials can come from everywhere. Well, you take any church, the lively stones, you know, we don't have many that has came from Pyrosyngenic. But the material you got to build your house didn't all come from Harrison County. I'm trying to show the difference between most people when they look at the church, they look at the building. This is the church. But that's a church building. The church is us. So, In the building of a house, the lumber in the forest, the stones in the quarry, brick and mortar still in the soil, we can easily say the stones for God's house are human beings. Because we can have a house, we can have a church house in my house. We can have a church house in your house. We can have church as we met down west side while they were building this building. We were no less a church when we were at west side than after they finished the building and we moved here because the church are the people. Now see if why this is so important that's why that when we go out that's part of the church out in the world And the world is looking for you to make a mistake. Always have, always will. Roman numeral two, we want to note briefly the contractor. The divine builder is Christ. But, you know. Humanly speaking, if we weren't taught and believe what we believe, most independent churches would change pastors today. Because why? They haven't had any people saved. I mean, what growth in the churches today are almost transferred from one church to the next church. But there's very few people being saved. so the church doesn't grow. Now, when we look at that and we think about the most familiar verse in when we study, you know, you look at Matthew 16, 18, and it's the most familiar church. were about the church. So we look at 16, Matthew 16, 18, where God said, And I say also unto thee, that thou, Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So when you look at this church or any other church and they start using worldly plans and worldly ideals, then what you get is a church by name with the world on the inside. I'm not going to get into illustrations, but the church is not I didn't say anything to Kim as we passed the search out there, coming in, you know. Big old bus there. A big old bus shows up every quarter. And when we go back, the cars will be parked everywhere because you put in a singing group and the people will come. But where does God say that we need to use the world to bring people in the church? It doesn't. And so, that's why that you'll see this year, like all the other years, probably one of the worst Holidays that we, I say we because I don't celebrate it, have never celebrated since I've been saved. If I ever did before, I'm not sure, but I can't imagine decorating this church up at Halloween. I'd be afraid to go to bed that night. The Halloween is strictly of the devil from the beginning to the very end, and you're going to bring that into God's church. So we know briefly the contractor of the church is the Holy Spirit. He adds, preacher preaches, but nobody hears, nobody acts unless the Holy Spirit touches them. If I don't say anything else, that's one of the most important statements about the church. People ask, you know, have you thought about retiring? Have you thought about leaving? Have you thought about this? It is the Holy Spirit that sets us in the church. It's the Holy Spirit that takes us out of the church. Not family, not cousins, not entertainers, not anything. But God moves people, and we should pray for that person, whoever they may be, if they move. Because God put me here, God put me here. He may move me, he may move you. But I'm trying to, I just want to get you to see the divine builder is Christ. But he employs human workers. But the power is his. The power is his. It's hard for us to believe now, but there was a time when we had 15, 16 men go out on visitation, knocking on doors, telling people how to be safe. But the best door knocker I've ever door knocked with was Brother Bobby Wall. get in that house, and as they're closing the door on him, he's still preaching to them. And he did it in such a gentle way, you know. So me, as his pastor, I said, you know, y'all don't pattern your visitation after me. You pass it, you furnish it after Brother Bobby. Because that was a gift that God gave him, and he was good at it. When we talk about the divine, you know, order, it is the contractor. And he employs human workers, but the power is in him. Sir Russell Bell was commissioned to build the ancient temple. Found that in Zechariah 4-6. But Zechariah had no power within himself. But we go in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and we let him use our mouth, our attitude, everything he uses. So anytime that I get in the wrong attitude when I'm doing the Lord's work, I can't expect it to be blessed because there is one Holy Spirit and that Holy Spirit don't matter who it is, whether it was me or Brother Bobby or any of the other men that went, we may save what is needed for a person at least with physical years to hear the gospel. But if the spirit did not bear witness with it, they will not be saved. And we should not think we were a failure. We weren't. Our job was to go teach, go preach. My preaching has no power to save unless the spirit of God bears with it. So, any church, building done in the power of energy of the flesh is useless. I mean, it is useless. Because if I can get somebody to come, if they're coming for entertainment, And somebody tell them about the Isaacs, they're out there in the country church. They won't be here tonight if we had nice service. If the Isaacs are still playing, they'll be out there listening to the Isaacs. And there's nothing wrong with listening to the Isaacs. All you got to say if you got 45 people on one Sunday and you got, if the building holds 300, you got 300 the next Sunday because a singing group is there. How many of that group going to be there next Sunday or next Sunday? See, God makes it very clear how we should build a church, how we should sustain the church. Notice in 127, Psalms 127, God says here, one verse, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. Except the Lord build the house. In other words, unless God adds to the church, we can persuade him to come. but only the Holy Spirit can persuade them to stay. So God said, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord keep the city, the workmen watch it but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to set up late, eat the bread of sorrow, for he'd give of his beloved sleep. Lo, children are heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. We can get another teaching with that verse. That baby that you carry in your womb, and when that baby is brought forth, it belongs to God. And our responsibility is to raise it up as such. So when we look at Matthew 16, 18, and we see that Psalms 127, verse one, you know, this would eliminate many so-called churches from being his church, because some have human contractors, and some are built by fleshly energy. You know, so many people would think, and if they listen to this tape on sermon audio, they'd probably say, you know, that he had no right to say this. But if we use the world to bring him in, we got to keep the world and the church to keep him. And God said, as we just read, it is he. It is He that adds. Some have human contractors and some are built by flesh and energy. But I don't have the power to know whether somebody is sincere or not. But I do know what God's Word says, you know. So we need to stick to that. What does God's Word say? So the first point, we notice who built the church. Second point, we note Briefly, the contractor. And the contractor, you know, if this church doesn't grow, we can't blame God. Even though God knew before the foundation of the world how many we would have here this morning. So, room number three. Let us notice the building itself. First of all, we need to know when we're talking about a church, dwelling place of God, what is the building itself? Well, we already explained briefly, didn't go into all of it. But when we look at 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, God said, He also, as lively stones, built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Our aim is to get to God. The only way to get to God is through Jesus Christ, and if we're not In his will, he doesn't hear our prayers. It's not that people are not praying. We have a need and I look at my Facebook page and there's 10, 12, 15, 20 people praying. But how many of them in the center of God's will? I don't know, and I'm not judging, but I'm saying my prayers, your prayers, unless we're in God's will when we pray, we uttered words, but not prayers. So we notice it is a spiritual house, and that's what 1 Peter 2, 5 is telling us. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. You can't have a spiritual church if you don't have spiritual people. And you can't have spiritual people unless they're living by the word of God. Not that I'm perfect, are you perfect? None of us perfect. But there's some things that we should say no to. But how many of us do that? How many of us want to do that? So we look at these things. But a spiritual house, this means it is built of men who have had a spiritual birth. We've had lost people here since I've been here. I baptized them. They were members for two, three, four, five years. But in reality, I didn't baptize them. And in reality, they weren't members of the church. So that's when you separate the church as a building with records of members, or you said the spiritual church. You see, we always, we need, and I'm going to teach this in a few weeks, the difference between the kingdom, the family, and the church. You know, so there are a lot of people that are saved that are in the family, but they're not in the church. Which reason that can be. I was saved before I was baptized. and the baptism added me to the church. But if I wasn't saved, I didn't get saved when I'd go down into the water. But I could be in the family of God and not know squat about the Bible. You know, people say, I don't believe that. Then you're telling me that I gotta teach a person how to be saved? I preach the word and the Holy Spirit does the teaching. The Holy Spirit does the teaching. But what we need to remember, the Holy Spirit ain't gonna teach if they haven't heard the word. And it, people don't send cards, you know, like they used to. But if you're gonna send a card, it should have a spiritual message to it. because you can read that and the Holy Spirit use that to get you thinking. See, God has many ways to reach his people except what we as narrow-minded Baptists think, you know. The house has two foundations. It has a personal foundation, you know. We have a, what is, You know, we can always tell, well, I shouldn't say always, but most of the time when somebody joins the church, after talking to them a while, I can know that they have went to church somewhere regularly or semi-regularly because they got knowledge but no understanding. Well, God says in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 11, For other foundations can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. We talked to somebody from the mountains. They live still up there. You talk to them and you can know by the way they answer questions and put emphasis on things where they're from. Well, what does that teach us? If somebody comes from a certain part of the country, we know how they talk, what they like, what they don't like. That tells us something about that person. If God added you to the family of God today, that in time somebody knows something has happened to you. You're not the same person. You don't talk the same talk. You don't do the things you're, what is important to you. I don't mean you dry up and you never have fun, all that stuff. But it has a personal foundation. And foundation is important. If you're buying a house, one of the first things you want to look to see if that foundation is steady. If that foundation is cracked or dropping, that'd be a concern. My spiritual foundation is all the changes that Christ has made in me. So, it has a personal personal difference that changes a little bit about us. And people may not know what has happened, but they will know that something happened. You rededicate your life, same thing. Matthew 16, 18, which all of you know, he said, and I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He said, thou art Peter, you're Peter. And upon this rock, being himself. If a church is not built upon Jesus Christ, If a family is not built up on Jesus Christ, cracks will come in that foundation. And sometimes you'll even wonder if you're saved. The bigger the crack, the less assurance you have. Unless you say, oh, I remember when I was baptized. But if you were lost, you never was baptized. You got wet. And that's why that I stand against, you know, first, God, all the men, different preachers said, you know, you shouldn't have to baptize somebody but once. I don't. But there's a lot of people that want to be baptized that weren't saved. Maybe a year, two years, maybe whatever. One of those people was my wife. I baptized her when I was a pastor of Hebron and she didn't want to come down. She didn't want to be an embarrassment to me. Man, that'll never embarrass me. If you know your baptism is not right because you're not going to be in the bride of Christ if you don't have scriptural baptism. I mean, that's a different subject, but I can't mention that without going into it. But it has a doctrinal foundation, the apostles and prophets. We built upon that of what Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2 tells us. They laid the foundation by preaching the gospel to us. I know what I know because I, as the saying said, I cut my teeth on it. And I'm not proud of it, but when I first started going to Brother Bill, I studied hard, tried to prove him wrong. Shame of that now. But as I opened that Bible and studied, opened that Bible and studied, I couldn't do it. Because why, he was preaching the gospel. So God tells us. There has to be a doctrinal foundation. The apostles and prophets, you know, we need to understand that you will not stand for the Lord unless your doctrine is sound. Your doctrine is sound. You got to know that it was God that justified. It was God that opened up that cold, dark heart and let you see your true condition. Those things are so important. And we've got to know that the cornerstone is Jesus Christ. No building without a cornerstone holds the wall together. Got to have it. And so we need to thank God, you know, I'm not ashamed of it, I have thanked God many times that he let me get in a church like Grace Baptist Church in Georgetown, where Brother Bill preached the doctrine. And we see in the book of Galatians chapter three and verse 28, where he said very clearly here, There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. See, if I didn't have any of the scripture, I have to tell you that that's why that I'm against the Church of Christ. I'm not against the people, I'm against the Church of Christ's teaching. You can't find nowhere where the woman should walk so many steps behind the man. Especially if you're married, you all became one. We notice the structure, the structure of on the way it is built. The stones come to Christ. What happened when God saved you? Did you decide to come to the Lord? I mean, nobody didn't make you. But you look at 1 Peter 2, 4, and you'll see here that God says here in 1 Peter 2, and verse 4, he says, to an inheritance, interruptible, undefiled, and the fate of not a way reserved in heaven for you. As soon as God saved me, And I was told I got a new home. I got a new home. And I ought to be getting ready for that new home while I'm down here. The sinner leaves himself, ceases to hope in himself in the hope of Christ. See, that's why we don't pray. The only time we pray when we're in a tradition where we know we can't do anything about it. But as long as we can work it out, as long as we can make it right, what are you asking God to do something that you think you can do? But we can't. There's a need to exhort men to come to Christ in this way. Just as I am without one plea. These stones come by being drawn unto him. So one of the doctrinal, Christ chose me. I didn't choose him. But I can't tell a lost man that because he says, well, in that case, I have nothing to do with it. Well, our responsibility is to avail ourselves to the preaching of God's word. And when we go away from God's word, it isn't God that's changed. The circumstances that you may use for you to do what you want to do is all in your mind. And unless we repent of it, God will deal with us. The stones come by being drawn unto him. It's always, because I was there, I can, you know, you can explain something if you've been there, but if you've been saved very long, you'd see people that are running from the Lord. They got every excuse in the world. But if we look at John chapter 12, John chapter 12 and verse 32, God said, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth. What did he say? We'll draw all men unto him. If God elected you in time, he will draw you. He will call you to change your mind. You'll come and you can say that little Arminian thing, you know. Preacher, I have decided to follow Jesus. Even though that's not true, I don't make anybody upset by not, you know, telling them that's wrong. But how can a dead man decide anything? You can't. So you decide, and the only reason even Armenian teaching would, after you've heard and the spirit of God has convicted you, There is no forcing, man made willing by God's power. The outward means of drawing is the gospel. The gospel is the dynamite in the hands of the spirit. They can be and are blessed out of the query of nature. It is God. It is God. that causes you to change. And you may tell yourself, I've decided not to drink no more. I've decided not to curse no more. I've decided to start going to church. And God doesn't mind you saying that. But you don't have that ability. Your job is to say, Lord, I need you. Lead me, guide me, direct me. And he'll do it. He'll do it. So, as we close, we notice lastly the covenant of this spiritual house. God, who is a spirit, has built himself a house to live in. If the spirit of God is not here this morning, where does it play in church? When we read some of these scriptures. Write these down. If you're really studying, you'll go back and look them up. Acts 748, 1 Corinthians 619, Ephesians 222. We want to read this one, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 16. God said, and what a dreamer at the temple of God with idols, for we are the temple of the living God as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. See, we can, we have a free will to a point. Nobody, God doesn't make us do anything, but if we refuse to follow him, then he'll deal with it. Father, we thank you for this study. We ask, Lord, now that you prepare us for the worship.