Well, if you have a copy of the scriptures this morning, let me invite you once again to turn to the book of Ephesians, or Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, to the saints and the faithful in Christ in Ephesus. And we are continuing this morning our ongoing exposition of this epistle. Today we're going to be looking at Ephesians 2, verses 17 through 22. We're going to take up where we left off last Lord's Day. Let me invite you, as you're able, let's stand again in honor of the reading and hearing of God's Word. Again, I'm reading from Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 17, wherein the Apostle Paul continues. and came and preached peace to you, which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both had 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 holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. May God bless, once again, the reading and hearing of his word. And let's join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for thy word as it comes to us today. We ask for the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Open our eyes, unstop our ears, loosen our minds and hearts to receive thy truth. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, today again, we're continuing to this ongoing exposition of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, church that he had planted as described in Acts 19. And last Lord's Day, I noted that a lot of what Paul is doing in Ephesians chapter two is setting up a contrast for the believers so that they might understand what their lives had been like and what status they had held in their unregenerate state in contrast to what they are now and what status they hold now in their regenerate state. So I suggested last time he's drawing a before and after picture, sort of like perhaps somebody running a fitness channel on social media. This is what I used to look like when I was fat and flabby, and this is what I look like now when I'm sleek and fit. And so here was my unregenerate state, here is the regenerate state, except it's something so much more glorious than merely firming up the flesh and firming up the body, but it's one spiritual state that has been transformed. We noted especially that this church in Ephesus, like all the churches that Paul planted, Paul called himself in Romans 11, 13, the apostle of the Gentiles. But when we read through Acts, the first thing he would do when he went into a city is he would go into the synagogue. And he would speak there to his fellow Jews, his kinsmen, according to flesh. And there would be people in those synagogues that are called in the book of Acts, God fearers, Gentiles, non-Jews who have been attracted to the Old Testament, learning about Jehovah. And so there were there were Jews and there were these these Gentile proselytes. And invariably, Paul would come into conflict and he would get kicked out of the synagogue. We know at Ephesus, according to Acts 19, he went into a place called the School of Tyrannus and he taught for two years there. And there were Jews and Gentiles who came to the faith. And this was the beginning of the planting of this church. As time went on, the number of Gentiles most likely began to outpace the number of Jewish Christians. And apparently, as had happened in many other cases, this led to some disunity among the brethren, Jews and Gentiles. And part of what Paul is doing in Ephesians 2 is he's addressing the believers, and especially I think the Gentile believers, He's telling them about the new status they have in Christ. It's a status they didn't earn through their rectitude or through their own merit, but it's a status that had been given to them by the mercy of God. And this is a chapter that stresses very much this quality of God's mercy. If you go back to verse four, but God who is rich in mercy and he has brought these who were not a people into the people of God. There are in our passage today at least four inspired analogies which Paul uses to describe the believers. The first of these, and therefore perhaps the most prominent, is a political analogy. He says in verse 19 that these Ephesian believers have been made fellow citizens with the saints. From there, he will proceed to describe three more inspired analogies. They now have been made part of the household or the family of God. They have been constructed like a building, and they have been made into a temple. So those are the four inspired analogies, fellow citizens of this new nation that has been formed through the gospel. They are part of the family of God. They are a building and they are a temple. And so we hope as we walk through this passage today to understand not only what Paul was saying to the people of Ephesus, but what's the end of it. For us, it's that we might understand today better, if we are believers, the new status that we have, the new reality we have as believers in Christ. And perhaps for those who still stand outside of the faith, who are looking in today at these Christians, To understand what it means to be a believer. How one's reality, one's status is transformed through faith in Christ. So let's turn to our passage and see if we can walk through it together. Now, it starts in verses 17 and 18, sort of continuing a thought that we were looking at last week. Before we get to those four inspired analogies, we need to look at verses 17 and 18. This sort of provides the context for understanding these analogies. And remember, if we go back to verse 12, Paul, in describing this before and after scene in verse 12, perhaps most powerfully, had described what they were like before they were converted. And he describes them in three ways. They were without Christ. They were Christless. They were having no hope, it says in verse 12. They were hopeless. And they were without God in the world. They were godless. And then there had been the hinge point in verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, you, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh or close by the blood of Christ. And so there was the hinge point. This is what you used to be like. You used to be Christless, hopeless, godless. But now, your status has been changed. It's been transformed. And this has come about by the blood of Christ. by the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. And then you might remember that Paul had used an analogy taken from the temple in verse 14. He talked about Christ being our peace. He talked about how Christ had broken down the middle wall of partition. And I suggested the background for understanding this was the temple that was like a concentric circle. There was the Holy of Holies. There was a place that only the high priest could go there. There was the place the priest could go to. There was a place Jewish males could go to, Jewish females. And then beyond that, the court of the Gentiles. but now all these things have been broken down and men have been brought close to God and the walls dividing them from one another have been broken down so that now, he says in verse 15, God has been pleased in himself to make of twain, old way of saying two, One new man, so making peace. And so for the believers, it's not a matter anymore of whether you're a Jew or whether you're a Gentile. There is now one new man who has been made in Christ. There was an early Christian writer. His name was Tertullian of Carthage. And he was famous for one of his statements was that Christians are a tertium quid, he said. It's a Latin term meaning a third thing. They are no longer, should consider themselves according to flesh as Jews or Gentiles, and that's the way ancient Jews saw the whole world. It wasn't multicultural, it was binary. You're either a Jew or a Gentile. But Tertullian said there's now a tertium quid, there's a third thing. You have been made one in Christ. You're neither a Jew nor a Gentile. You are a Christian. You are a follower of Christ. And he stresses this. This is where we ended last time, that he made reconciliation of both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross. And again, the emphasis of the means by which God has brought about this transformation from the unregenerate state to the regenerate state has been by the cross. Remember, again, looking back at verse 13, it was by the blood of Christ. And here it's by the cross in verse 16. We can never overestimate what the Lord accomplished at Calvary. This is why we so often speak of the cross. We sing of the cross. We meditate upon the cross. We write about the cross. I think maybe I mentioned last week that Charles Spurgeon said his philosophy of preaching was, he said, I take my text and I make a beeline to the cross. And where did he get that from? Well, he got it from the apostle Paul. On the cross, the one who was slain became the slayer. He slew the enmity of man against God, and man against man, and man against himself. And this takes us to verse 17. As this sentiment continues, and it's going to set the stage for describing, again, these four inspired analogies of the new status we have in Christ. And so, in verse 17, Paul draws here upon a figure or an analogy of a distance being overcome. And he, this is referring back to Christ, he came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. Those who were far off would have been the Gentiles who didn't know their left hand from the right, who didn't know the God of the Scriptures. And to those who considered themselves to be nigh, those who had known the covenants of promise and the Old Testament and so forth. And now Christ comes and he preaches peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. This analogy of distance, again, is related to what was said in verse 13. Ye who are sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Since I think he's addressing primarily the Gentile believers, I think, with these statements, let's meditate on this for a moment. Paul is saying to those Ephesian believers who were Gentiles, who were pagans before they heard the gospel, essentially that Christ came and preached peace to them. The verb rendered here as preached means to proclaim the good news or to evangelize. Euangelizomai is the verb in Greek. Evangelized. Christ came and preached peace, evangelized peace to you which were afar off. Christ came to you and He proclaimed the good news of Himself in His own person. He told you of His work for you. He told you of the peace that comes by being justified by faith. Peace with God through Himself, through Christ. And we might ask ourselves here at this point in verse 17, how exactly did Christ do this? How did Christ come to them? He's speaking to men who were living in ancient Ephesus, a city in what the ancients called Asia Minor, Little Asia, which is modern day Turkey. a little site on the western Mediterranean, hundreds of miles away from the land of Israel where the Lord Jesus had exercised His First Advent ministry. According to Acts 19, The preaching of the Gospel had only come to Ephesus initially through the Apostle Paul when he traveled there, and that was after the death, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. How then can Paul say that Christ Himself came and declared to them that He is their peace? that through him they might have peace with God, through him they might have peace with their fellow men, through him they might have peace within themselves. How had Christ done this? How can Paul say this? Well, he did this through his ambassadors whom he had sent out. He did this through his heralds. He did this through the Apostle Paul. He did this through preachers of the Gospel. Paul makes a similar point if we look over in Ephesians 4. I've pointed to this passage, I think, a couple times in this series already. But look at Ephesians 4, verses 20 and 21, where he says to these same believers, he says, But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus." It's that same quandary, isn't it? What do you mean? You heard Christ and you've been taught by Him, but they're on the far edge of the Mediterranean. What do you mean that they have heard Christ? And again, the key to understanding this is Paul is basically saying, when you heard, one of Christ's ambassadors, one of His emissaries, His heralds, preaching the Gospel to you, it was as though you were listening to Christ Himself. One of the slogans of the Protestant Reformation was a statement that was recorded in a confession of faith that was drawn up among some believers in Switzerland who had heard the Gospel And it's called the Second Helvetic Confession of 1562. And the statement that appears there is this. The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. And it's this mystery that when fallible preachers, weak preachers, stammering preachers, like this preacher, stand before us and we open the Bible and we speak about Christ, Christ Himself is speaking through His Word. Through these jars of clay. He is sending His message out to those who have ears to hear. Do you truly expect that when you come to Christ's church, and hear God's Word preached, no matter the inadequacies of the ministry, no matter the weakness of the church, the congregation, a little feeble church like ours, that Christ Himself is pleased to speak unto and make Himself known to those who will listen. In the Middle Ages in England, a legend arose that Christ had come to England as a little boy. Children, I'm going to tell you a story, but it's not true. It's a legend. But this story popped up in the Middle Ages because they so wanted to think that Christ had come to them. And there's a legend. And the legend goes like this. Joseph of Arimathea, the man who took Christ's body down from the cross, was the brother of Mary. So they say. That's not biblical, but that's what they say. And they say he was a tin merchant. And once he took Christ with him and Christ was a boy and they went into England and they went to Cornwall, where there are 10 mines. And Christ was in England as a little boy. And then part of the legend also is that after the cross and the resurrection, Joseph of Arimathea came back and preach the cross and the resurrection. And believe it or not, every once in a while, you will find an Anglican seminary that will be called Joseph of Arimathea Seminary. You can Google it sometime. Years later, after the Middle Ages, a poet named Robert Blake wrote a poem called Jerusalem, which was later set to music. And it's sometimes called an unofficial anthem of England. You can look it up on YouTube sometimes, a wonderful hymn. But in the words of that hymn, Blake picked up on this story about unbiblical, legendary story about Christ coming to England. And it reads like this. And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green? And was the Holy Lamb of God on England's pleasant pastures seen? Well, friends, that legend is most surely false. Our Lord only once, according to the New Testament, left the land of Israel, and that was when He was an infant, when He was taken to Egypt, as was recorded for us in Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 2. But that legend nevertheless expresses something that is quite true, because Christ did come to England. But He did not come as a boy before the cross and the resurrection. with Joseph of Arimathea. He came to England through Christian preachers of the gospel after the cross and resurrection. He came to that land on the lips and tongues of men as they preached Christ and Him crucified. He came as men came and preached the sweetness of the gospel. And guess what? He came to Virginia too. He came to Virginia too. He came to Louisa, Virginia. He came through heralds of the gospel. He came through men who preach Christ and Him crucified. He came to preach peace to those who are far off and to bring us nigh unto Him. Paul continues then in verse 18, he says, for through Him, that's meaning Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto the Father. We should notice especially that little prepositional phrase, through Him. Through Christ, by means of Christ, by the mediatorial person and work of Christ, we have access. A way has been opened to us by one Spirit that we might come to the Father. As Christ Himself taught in John 14, verse 6, what did He declare? I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And what did Paul write in 1 Timothy 2.5? He said, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And so we can meditate on Paul's words here. For through him, how are Jews saved? if they are saved? It's through faith in Christ. How are Gentiles saved if they are saved? It is through faith in Christ. Through Him we both have access by one Spirit under the Father. By the way, if you're looking at verse 18, did you notice in that verse, as I've read it now a couple times, did you notice in that verse a whisper of the Trinity? of the one God who is from all eternity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Where are the places in the Bible we look for proof texts that teach the Trinity? There are three major ones we look at in the Gospels in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, when the risen Lord commissions the disciples and he says, go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Spirit. It's also there in 2 Corinthians 13, 14, that apostolic benediction. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Spirit be with you all evermore. It's also there in 1 John 5, 7, when John says there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. But there are many other verses within the Scriptures where there are whispers of the Trinity. Look at verse 18. For through Him, through Christ the Son, we both have access by one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, We have access unto whom? Unto the Father, God the Father. So do you see there in that verse, we have another whisper of the Trinity, a proof text for the Trinity. Well, friends, verses 17 and 18 set up our context. And now let's turn and let's look at these four inspired analogies that are provided for us for the new status that we have in Christ when we become believers. And the first one that is mentioned is that believers are fellow citizens with the saints. Look at verse 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. Now, there's going to be here in verse 19, the beginning of verse 19, this political analogy that as Christians, we are fellow citizens with the saints. And verse 19 is also, we could call it a hinge verse because it transitions to describing believers in the regenerate state. So it starts off, now therefore, in light of the fact that Christ has reached you who are far off and you who are near with the Gospel, in light of the fact that you have heard with the inward ear the effectual and efficient call of the Lord, and you have been converted, your status has been changed, and now ye, which is a King James Version way of saying y'all, Y'all are no more strangers and foreigners. Ye are no more strangers and foreigners. And again, I think he's speaking especially to the Gentile believers. And this is the way that he had described them previously. Look back again at verse 12. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. And now, likewise, He describes them as previously in their unregenerate state having been strangers and foreigners. But now, they have become fellow citizens with the saints. This recalls what the Apostle Peter will write in 1 Peter 2, verse 10, when he said, I think I quoted this last week, he spoke to the believers, he said, which in time past, We're not a people, but now are the people of God. We can draw an analogy, can't we, with our current political circumstances. And by the way, I'm making this point not to make a political point, but to make a spiritual one. We're at a time right now in our nation where there are people who illegally entered our nation are being rounded up and deported. And if they do not have citizenship, then they are vulnerable to be removed. And Paul's using an analogy like that. He's saying to these Gentiles, you were once aliens, strangers, and foreigners. You were ignorant of who God is. You had no proper citizenship. And under God's judgment, you might rightly have been dismissed from His presence. But now, by God's grace, you have been given full citizenship in the Kingdom of God. And you have been made fellow citizens with all the saints You have joined a citizenship in the kingdom with Moses and with Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah. You have been made part of the people of God by grace. You have been given a new status as you have been saved by grace and are being made holy in Him. I've used this analogy before, Most of you know my youngest son was adopted into our family, and he's from China. And when we went to China in 2009 to add him to our family, we had to go through a process, a legal process, and we had to go to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, and we had to sign all this paperwork, and the paperwork was all completed, such that when we left China and we landed back in the United States, our son immediately became a U.S. citizen just by virtue of moving from China into the United States. Through adoption, He gained a new status of citizenship in this nation. And if we could draw a dim analogy, what happens to us is through spiritual adoption, when we come to faith in Christ, we are given a citizenship status that we did not hold previously. We are made fellow citizens with all the saints. The second inspired analogy that Paul puts before us is in the very last line there of verse 19. So you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and of the household of God. The term that is used here in Greek that is rendered of the household of God is a term that means a member of a household. It comes from the base word in Greek, which is oikos, for we would say a family or a household. In the ancient world, they didn't so much think of the nuclear family like we do today, a mom and a dad and 2.5 kids or the dog or whatever. But they thought of the oikos as an extended household. So it would be a mother and father and children, but it would also be the grandparents would be there. There might be other extended relatives. There would be servants. There would be employees. There would be those that one had taken under one's wing as part of his household. And so, this is a family analogy for what it means to become a believer. When you become a believer, you become part of the household of God. You were once orphans. You were once homeless. You were once family-less. We can add that to the list of things from verse 12. You were Christless, you were hopeless, you were godless, you were family-less, you were nation-less. And that was a terrible thing in the first century. It's a terrible thing in any time, but especially in the first century, there's no social safety net, and if you don't have a family, you depend on everything for your family. Sadly, we've gotten away from that, and people are looking to their government to be the family for them, but in these times, people Relied on the family you had to have a connection with your family You had to have a family network to take care of your basic needs and Paul is saying in no uncertain terms Listen, you used to be without a family, but now you have been made part of the household of God The moment that you become a believer and You become part of a family. You become part of the household of faith. And I think that's one of the things that is often so encouraging for people when they come to the faith. Because sometimes people didn't grow up in great families. And they feel estranged from their families and households. And sometimes it's very comforting to know I'm part of the household of God. I want you to be careful about that. We talk about this all the time, don't we? We don't like the cults trying to love bomb people into our church. We're not going to pretend we're your best buddies the first time you come into our church. But it's a family. It's a family. I don't know anybody who hasn't come to our church and been here over years and made a commitment of shared experiences that doesn't find over time, oh, I'm part of a family. I'm part of the household of God. I'm a family member in this household. And so, It's key for us. The Lord Jesus, when he was teaching the apostles, he said, there's no one who's lost houses or lands or mother or father or sister because of me and the gospel who will not be rewarded a hundred times over with houses and land and family and mothers and fathers and brothers. When we ordained our brother Ben Cook to the eldership a few Lord's days ago, I preached in 1 Corinthians 4, 1. in which Paul described himself as an apostle, along with ordinary church officers or elders, as stewards of the mysteries of God. And the word steward, I pointed out, also comes from the word oikos, or household. And so, within this household of God, there are stewards, there are managers, people who minister the word, people who minister the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, And we also just have the brotherly affections for one another. The koinonia, the Philadelphia, as it's called in Greek, for one another. And again, we don't promise that happens overnight, but over time. One becomes part of the household of God. Third inspired analogy is in verse 20. And this one is that believers, the new status we have is we are like an edifice or a building. And so let's look at verse 20 where it says, And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Such a point is made directly by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3-9 when he wrote to the Corinthians, Ye, or y'all, are God's building. And here that same analogy is used. You're an edifice that is being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Now, we have to be careful with this analogy because there are many people in our day who wrongly think that a church is merely a building. And if you say, I'm going to church, and you mean I'm going to an edifice, I'm going to a structure, I'm going to a building, that would be a wrong way of thinking about going to a church. I mean, maybe you're like me, and you grew up with this little children's rhyme, right? Here's the church, and here's the steeple, and open the door and see the people. Well, it's a silly little rhyme, but it does teach something that's true, and that is the church is not this building. In fact, we sometimes prefer to call this our meeting house. It's simply our meeting house, so as to avoid any confusion about that matter. Friends, this building might burn down. I hope it doesn't, because it's been a great gift to us, and I'm thankful for it. But we can go meet in a shed or in a field. And the church, and we also, by the way, that's not to say that we should, that our church buildings should be dumps. They ought to reflect beauty and order. They ought to be attractive places. Our meeting houses ought to be that. But let's not get confused. We are God's building. When Paul said that, he didn't say we're the building, we're the structure. What he's saying is that as believers we have a new status such that we are like a building. How are we like a building? We are like a building in that we are built or constructed upon a sure foundation. We've got a few contractors, builders in the room here, and they would tell us that if we get the foundation wrong and the building is structurally unsound, It will not pass code. It may collapse and injure many. And so we've got to get the foundation right. And Paul says that the first thing we have to care about is as believers is the fact that we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Later in chapter 3, verse 5, he will speak of revelations of the mysteries concerning Christ having been revealed to apostles and prophets. Here again in verse 20, he says we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. By apostles, Paul is speaking of those who held what we think of as the extraordinary office of apostle, an office of leadership, that was established by Christ himself when he chose twelve men to be an inner circle among his apostles. Beyond those initial twelve, after Judas betrayed our Lord, Matthias took his place, as it's recorded for us in Acts 1. And then the apostle Paul himself was added to this group by direct commission by the risen Lord himself, on the road to Damascus as recorded in Acts 9. When Paul wrote of it himself in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, I am the least of the apostles, not even fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of Christ. All these men were eyewitnesses of the risen Lord. By prophets, Paul, I think, was speaking of the Old Testament prophets, like Moses and Isaiah, who spoke of Christ prophetically. But also of New Testament prophets, another extraordinary office that doesn't extend to this day, like the office of Apostle, but there were New Testament prophets, men like Agabus. And what Paul's saying here is that with our transformed status, we are like an edifice, we are a building, and our faith is established by resting upon the authoritative teaching of the apostles and prophets. In Acts 2 and verse 42, Luke describes the church of Jerusalem, and he says they continued steadfastly in four things. in the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. But the first thing listed was that they continued in the apostles' doctrine or didache. In the book of Jude, the epistle of Jude, Jude writes in Jude 17, But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets is to be grounded in the inspired writings and teachings of the apostles and prophets. It is to be biblical. And of course, that's a prominent concern for us, isn't it? We want to be biblical. We want to follow the scriptures. But notice that Paul does not stop there. The foundation is not laid merely upon mere men alone, but he continues in verse 20, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. We are like a building laid on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, but Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. This comes from the prophecy that's found in Psalm 118. Verse 22 and following, the stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. Our Lord drew upon this himself to speak of his ministry in Matthew 21, verses 42 through 44. R.C. Sproul, in his little commentary on Ephesians, observed that the stone described here has its roots in ancient masonry. It was the brick by which the builder lined up the whole building. Often it was the first brick to be laid. It was the keystone for the whole building. Pull this brick out and everything falls. So the foundation was laid in and upon the chief cornerstone. We're like a building. We're an edifice built on the apostles and prophets. But the chief cornerstone is Christ Himself. This is a timely passage to read today, as many of our Roman Catholic friends will soon recognize what they call a new pope as the head of their church. They claim that the church is built upon Peter as the rock, whereas we say the church is built upon Peter's confession. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. With all due respect to our Roman Catholic friends, the Pope is not the head of the church and the church is not presently headless, leaderless, because that role is taken by Christ himself. And he will suffer no pretenders to that position. He won't suffer pastors who think they're the head of his church either. This does not criticize the Roman Catholics. He will not suffer a Protestant pastor who thinks he's the head of the church. Fourth, believers are in holy temple in the Lord and in habitation of God through the Spirit. This is the fourth and final of these analogies that we find in verses 21 and 22. There's a really intriguing image in verse 21. Look at how it starts. In whom all the building, there's the explicit use of the word from verse 20, fitly framed together. So he starts off referring back to the fact that we're an edifice, we're a building, We are fitly framed together. I guess the builders might tell us that that would mean it's tight, everything fits correctly, it's snug, it will not shift and move under the weight of the other materials and the roofing and so forth. It is fitly framed together. But then all of a sudden he transitions in verse 21 from talking about this inanimate building that's been fitly, rightly framed together. And he uses the word groweth, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Talk about a green building. It grows. And it is transformed into an holy temple in the Lord. And so this is the fourth analogy that Paul brings before us. We are now, our new status is, we are a holy temple in the Lord, and we are the habitation of God through the Spirit. Now, particularly for the Jewish Christians to whom this was being written, They would have immediately, their ears would have perked up when they heard some mention of the temple, because the temple in Jerusalem was, of course, the center of Jewish piety. And it would stay in that place until the Romans destroyed it in AD 70. The pagans, their ears would have perked up too, because the ancient pagans, they loved temples also. The greatest cities of the ancient world had scores of temples. Rome had many temples. What Jews and ancient pagans could not understand about Christians was that they had no temple. See, the pagans, they thought, these Jews are weird. They only have one temple. It's in Jerusalem. And the Christians, you know, said, hold my Bible. We have no temple. We have no temple. We have no temple because we don't need sacrifices. We don't need the slaughter of animals, morning and evening, because there has been a once for all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our temples aren't buildings, ornate edifices. Our temples are simply the gathering of believers Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our temple. Every Lord's Day, we're building a temple. Peter, in 1 Peter 2, 5 and the following, wrote this. He said to the believers to whom he was writing, ye, or y'all also, as lively stones, some modern translations say living stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. See, we offer sacrifices, but they're spiritual sacrifices. The praise of our lips are sacrifices. Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2 verse 6. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore, verse 7, which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. He's quoting here of course Psalm 118. And then finally, 1 Peter 2, 8, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. Paul continues this theme in verse 22. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. We are a temple, a habitation, a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. Paul teaches in Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer. We would part ways with our charismatic friends who think that the gift of the Spirit is a second blessing. No, the Spirit is given to every believer. You are a Spirit-filled believer. If you're a Christian, the Spirit has entered into your life. has taken up residence in your life. In 1 Corinthians 3 verses 16 and 17, Paul describes the body of each believer as being the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells, warning that a man is not to defile that temple by sinful living. Here in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 22, It seems that Paul is adding to this the truth that the Spirit also inhabits believers collectively as they come together. See, individually as a Christian, we're Spirit-filled, the Spirit dwells in us, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, not to be defiled. But also collectively, commonly, when we come together in His name, resting upon the sure foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone, the Spirit inhabits this temple made of lively or living stones. So in 2 Corinthians 6.16, Paul can say, Ye, y'all, are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. The Spirit is in us, individually and collectively or corporately. Well friends, we've worked through the passage. What a glorious passage, honestly. What wonderful things are being said about the status we have in Christ. This is why I think the Christian who rightly understands what God has done for us in Christ cannot suffer under the delusion of thinking that he's still in the state of misery. We have been translated from the state of misery into this elevated status of being believers. So friends, here's some questions we may think about. First of all, do you understand that Christ has met with you and he has spoken to you through the servants that he has sent to you to preach the gospel to you? As weak and ineffective as we are, we're ambassadors for Christ. And some of you, it started early. Your parents took you to little faithful churches, and you heard men faithfully preaching the gospel. For some, it extends to this very day. Christ is here, and He is speaking through His Word. He is drawing those who are far off, bringing them near unto Himself. And then, do you understand? that if by faith, by grace, that you have come to believe in Christ, have been justified by faith, you have a new status. You have become a fellow citizen with the saints. You have a new citizenship in the kingdom by spiritual adoption. You have been made part of the family of God. Maybe you had a wonderful earthly family humanly speaking Like most you probably had one that wasn't quite perfect But but it was God graciously provided it for you But guess what if you're a believer you're now part of the household of God you're part of a big loving family extends all over this globe and world and I've said before, my daughter went off to college, she came back, she said, Dad, being a Christian is great. You can go to any city in the world and you can go to a church and they have to love you because you're a Christian. I said, you're right, Lydia. I've found it. I've found it over and over again in my life. I can go anywhere. And even in a little humble gathering of believers, the household of God is there. This is my family. I'm part of this by God's grace. And do you understand that we are his building? He's building us on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone, and we are growing into his holy temple and an habitation of the Holy Spirit. He not only fills us as individual believers, but He is pleased to inhabit little churches like ours, and grand churches, too. See, once you become a believer, you realize that what's significant about a church is not the size of it. It's whether Christ is pleased to make it His habitation. You see, that makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? Well, friends, we have heard God's Word today. May we listen to it, may we heed it, and may we rest in the fact that we are fellow citizens with all the saints. Amen? Let me watch you stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we do give thee thanks today for thy word. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. And we know when thy word goes out, it never returns void. Accept that it accomplishes the purposes for which it has been sent. Help us as we meditate today upon these things that we have read and heard, and use it to draw us closer to Christ. We ask this in his name, amen.