The Dwelling Place of God

0:16Thank you for listening to the Sermon Audio Podcast for Crossroads Bible Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Bible Church is a Reformed Confessional Baptist Church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church and for directions, you can find us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Hello and good morning. Please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. We're going to finish the book of Ephesians. We're going to finish the chapter of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 to 22 this morning. The big idea or the theme for our message this morning is that God is building a holy dwelling place for himself. God is building a holy dwelling place for himself, that is founded on his word, that is structured by and through his church, and is inhabited by his spirit. Everyone knows me here well enough. So everyone here knows me well enough to know that I am a very, and I emphasize very amateur construction hand. I know uh quite little by comparison about all the intricacies of uh how to build a house well and how to adhere to all the proper building codes and those things. But I do know what the essential components are that make a house and that make a home. All houses to be livable and to be safe must have two essential components. You can guess where we are going. They have to have a foundation, first and foremost. Without a well-grounded and level foundation on which to build any structure you put on said foundation is safe, subject to shifting, collapse. A second thing all houses need is some sort of structure built upon that foundation. A foundation alone does not a house make. Every house needs walls, needs a roof. That is the place of habitation. Offers safety and security. Those walls and roof, then, are more than just a physical barrier, right? They are the means by which the structure is made complete. They are what makes it habitable. There's a third component then to every good house. I said there's two, but there is three. You can have a great foundation, you can have a beautiful, well-built structure, but it's not a house unless what? People living in it. A foundation and a structure does not a home make. But a good house is all three of those things working together. A solid foundation, a well-built structure, and people dwelling within. This is a household. As we turn to our text this morning, we see then from the previous weeks of study all of this coming together into the house or the household of God. And we see what the finished result is of God having done his work through Christ and breaking down those barriers or those dividing walls of hostility, that separation that he broke down by his blood. And all those who were strangers, who were aliens, he gives us peace. He gives us a place. We see what the goal of our God is in gathering together of these saints by faith in the great work that Christ has done. The goal is to construct a dwelling place or made not with bricks or stones by human hands, but made in word, in truth, and with redeemed souls. This is the great construction work of God. And we see all those components then coming together this morning in the people of God, his household, the foundation of God, his revealed word, and the structure of God, his church. These come together to make the dwelling place of God an eternal home that may not pass all of our city, county, building codes. But it is a structure. This is a structure that will indeed stand forever. So that's where we're going.

6:11Stand with me once more. Let us read. Starting in verse 19 chapter 2.

6:31So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth of your word, the foundation, Lord, as Christ is our cornerstone. We pray and ask now, Lord, would you speak to us, Lord, through this word today as we sang, speak, O Lord, until your church is built in its fullness, Lord. We pray in the name of Jesus.

7:31Amen.

7:55Because Paul starts here with the household, which is where I perhaps would have ended. But I'm persuaded, in this case, at least, I may not say this is always going to be the case, to present to the text to us this morning as it is written. Perhaps as we move through this morning, I trust that the Spirit will give us a better understanding for having received it this way. But just so you know, it does logically seem out of order, but this is how we will present it. So we begin then with the kingdom or the household of God. And Paul really gives us two separate ideas brought together in this first verse. This is verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. And as I was originally looking through this text, I was only seeing the idea of the household of God or God's family as it relates to this picture of a building with a foundation and a structure. But several commentaries that I read pointed out that this is also mentioned here in the first half of verse 19, fellow citizens, he says. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens, which broadens this illustration to paint a picture of a whole kingdom of which we are fellow citizens. And in this way, I think we see that we are members of God's household, his family, or his close family, dwelling with him, right, in that closer sense. And such households together constitute a heavenly kingdom, a holy city, where we presently dwell spiritually, awaiting the day when we will also dwell there physically in this city. This kingdom. So from citizens and households to foundations and structures. And I think he's being poetic in a sense with the idea of household, because households are a people or a group of people with reference to their dwelling place, their house, right? Households. Groups of people are people with reference to their dwelling place. And then in the next verses, he uses the idea of a dwelling place or a structure with reference to the people who are actually the dwelling place. And I think this fills in or rounds out this metaphor that we personally are the house of God, and the house of God is us, the church. This circular metaphor. Let's comb through then this idea of household. And now that I see what I was missing originally in the text, it is difficult to unsee it once you see it, so I hope you see it. And that is how he uses two negatives to begin, verse 19, and then he is going to contrast those with two new positives that remedy those negatives. And we've talked about that a number of times now, but these Gentiles to whom he is writing, these were strangers, right? They were aliens, foreigners to the commonwealth of God. Strangers, meaning that they were estranged. They were separated. They were without any sort of familial connection. Think about that in terms of a household. They were orphaned, they were strangers, they had no plate. And that's the meaning behind the word strangers, no one to belong to, no one to connect to. They were rogue molecules, if you will, will, bouncing around the universe. I stick with that building analogy, and I know you can relate to this, they were unused two by fours that we just cast out behind the shed. No purpose, no plan. Never used for their ultimate purpose. These are strangers. This is how the text begins. So then you are no longer strangers. There were also aliens, it says. This is non-citizens of the kingdom of God. That's what we talked about even a couple weeks ago. They were perhaps wanting to get in to this heavenly nation, but they were denied a visa. They could not get in. They were aliens. So Paul takes those ideas and he counters them by the blood of the cross to say you are now fellow citizens. You're now citizens of this new heavenly kingdom. And even better, you are now members of his household, his family adopted into his household. And so those who were far off have been brought near by the blood of the cross. And those who were foreigners and were estranged have been given a new holy city in which to dwell, and a family, God's family, to live with and to commune with forever. And this is why he uses the analogy of household here in verse 19, as opposed to just saying family, which he could have. He's going to then connect this idea of household, dwelling place back again to the people of God. And the idea is that by the grace of God, the estranged and the homeless and the orphan has been given a place. He's been given a people. That is what's offered through faith in Christ in a spiritual sense now, but physically there will be a fulfillment of that in the ages to come. This is certainly where we get our idea of the invisible church. Perhaps even the Catholic Church, you could say. And the text says that we are citizens with the saints. That is, the full number of God's people, regardless of nation or denomination or gender, etc., are presently fellow citizens of this greater eternal city. And that reality exists under the surface or behind in the midst of what we presently see. And there is a reality to that. Though it is invisible in a sense, there is a reality to it. I've used this analogy before, I know, and if you've never read the book by C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, read it. But in that book, C. S. Lewis surprisingly portrays heaven as being more real than our present experience. That is to say, that those, when they come to heaven, they find, when they get there, that that place, heaven, is more real, it's more solid than the world that they left. And that the world that they left was really only a shadow of what they are now experiencing there. We often think of heaven as this kind of ethereal, spiritual floating around in hazy space on clouds or whatever. This picture that Lewis gives, that the word gives, that it is actually heaven and ultimately the new earth, that is the real place. And we are now living in a type of or a shadow of what is to come. And I think Lewis was getting at what Paul is getting at here, that there is a reality for those who are in Christ where there is real existence, a real place, a real family that we are only getting a glimpse of now, but it's there and we will experience it. We will experience by his grace what real living is, what real citizenship is, what real family is. Because by the blood of Christ we are now fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Let me add that Lewis, and nor do I, think in that analogy and in pulling that from the text, is that this present world is somehow not real or unimportant, but it is real and it is important. But that we don't treat redemption as some pipe dream or distant intangible thing. What Christ bought for us is life.

18:02He bought us family, a purpose, a place, a home.

18:11And it will be full and complete and perfect and unstained by sin. And certainly this is a shadow of that. And to support that, I'll read Hebrews 12, verse 24, 22 to 24. But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God to judge all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkle blood that speaks a better word, the blood of Abel. This is the city, the real city to which we are headed. Then as we continue into verse 20, he transforms that analogy to move from family with reference to household to now speaking of the structure with reference to the saints. And he begins by laying the foundation of that structure, the foundation being that first and most important part of any structure. And it is fitting that he lays that then first, he says in verse 20. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. The big question here then is if the foundation, if this foundation is built from the apostles and the prophets, who is he talking about? That seems like an important question. If this foundation built on the apostles and the prophets, and Christ Jesus is the cornerstone, who are those apostles and prophets? And the first one of those questions is relatively easy because we know who the apostles were. These were the twelve, the original twelve, minus Judas, plus Paul, with an asterisk next to Matthias, who is chosen by the casting of lots. Those are the apostles. Those are the apostles whom Christ was and is the cornerstone of. Those are the men who were chosen by God to give direct revelation of all of these mysteries, and who were the first to go out and begin the mission of the church. They were the foundational leaders of the New Testament church. Those men are the apostles. What about the prophets that mentions here? Apostles and the prophets. Or the whole Old Testament itself. And that wouldn't necessarily be wrong to say that because Romans 1 verse 2, you don't have to turn there, refers to the prophets as the Old Testament scriptures. This is what Paul says. He refers to the prophets as the whole of the Old Testament. So it is not wrong then to think that the prophets are the Old Testament. But if you read for yourself over in verse, chapter 3 of Ephesians, verse 4, it says this chapter 3 of Ephesians and verse 4. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. So, in context, it seems that what Paul is saying here in our text this morning, by using the word prophets, is he is not excluding the Old Testament prophets, but he is more specifically talking about those prophets here in the New Testament who were given direct revelation about the mystery of Christ, the revealed mystery of Christ, and labored then to that for that gospel foundation, which those Old Testament prophets only knew a shadow of. I want to emphasize again then that the whole Bible, all 66 books, is the foundation, is considered foundational, right? Validated by Christ Himself when he references those Old Testament scriptures and is certainly guided by the Word of God his whole life. But this is the inclusion of the New Testament prophets along with the apostles as the completion of the full canon of Revelation. This is the foundation upon which the church is built. By the Spirit, there is good reason to say this, for Paul to say it this way, and that's because many of our, I'll say many, some of our New Testament letters were not written by apostles. And certainly Paul was supporting those men in their day as speaking authoritatively on behalf of Christ. And we can trust that. Because of this, we can trust that when we read Luke and Acts, for instance, Mark, Hebrews, maybe, James and Jude, we can trust that these men carried prophetic and revelatory authority to contribute to the laying of the foundation of God's word and his gospel. In short, then, we recognize the full 66 books that you have in front of you right now, including all of those non-apostolic books that I just mentioned, along with the gospel message of redemption as gospel as the gospel message of redemption through Christ that is contained here. And this is the sole foundation upon which the church is built. Our confession puts it this way. This is 1689. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto the church, and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruptions of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world to commit the same holy, that is his word, unto writing, which maketh the holy scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now seized. Again I say, I don't know all of the intricacies about building a house or laying a foundation, but I do know this. You only lay a foundation once. And once it has been laid, the work of building begins upon that structure. And once the building begins upon that structure, you don't go back and you lay any more foundational material unless you've done something wrong, and God doesn't do anything wrong. So the idea that the apostolic offices or the revelatory aspect of the prophetic office has continued is to be ignorant at best to the sufficiency of God's foundational word. And at worst, this is a blasphemous affront to the authority of Christ and to his finished work and word. Hear me then, church. If you even if you know this, hear it again. This word that you have in front of you, given to us by the grace of God, with written support and God-given authority from the apostles and the prophets, has been and will always be perfect, fixed, unalterable, unrepeatable, never to be improved upon, full and final revelation of God and his plan to mankind. Jude verse 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you, to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Once for all, we have his word and his faith. And this is the foundation upon which we are built. And it is far more than simply sufficient to get the job done. That is his word, his foundation. It is far more than simply sufficient. It is perfect, it is free from error or blemish. It is clear in every place that it needs to be. It is mysterious in every place that God wants it to be. It reveals everything we need to build his church. It is illuminated and taught by the Spirit in perfect timing for each of his saints. It gives us guidance. It teaches us obedience that we may please the Lord. It offers us comfort in trial. It grants us hope in despair. It gives us wisdom for life. It refines us into the image of God. It is the regulator of our worship, the source of our preaching, the revelation of salvation. The unfading words of God. This is our rock and our foundation. That we may be like our brother Peter, who, after many had turned away from Christ because of the words that he spoke, and Christ pointedly asked these men, Do you want to go away as well? How did Simon Peter answer? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words eternal life. And we have believed. We have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. This church is what it means that the foundation has been laid. And the words of eternal life have been given. This is the great and glorious foundation. The perfect word of God. And on this we stand.

29:39And on this he will build his church.

29:44And this is how we finish then this chapter. And that is the building of God's people, his church, upon that foundation which has been laid. Verse 21, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place by God or God by the Spirit. And I will explain. In this truth, that we as a collection of people together, his church are presently the place where God the Spirit dwells. Remember the type of this in the Old Testament temple, which was where the presence of God dwelt, that being the Holy of Holies. In that type, God was detached from the common people. But he was particularly in a place. Okay? The presence of God was particularly in a place. And that doesn't negate his omnipresence, right? He is present everywhere. He fills all and is in all. But he is also at the same time by his spirit particularly present, or especially or intentionally present in certain places. This is true all throughout the Old Testament as well. I don't want to get into the weeds on how God can be omnipresent, but also locally or specifically present. But this is the testimony of Scripture and the historic teaching of the church. So God then was specially present in those holy of holies dwelling there until such time that Christ finished his work, right? When he finished himself on the cross, the veil was torn from top to bottom, breaking that separation, and then following in Pentecost, the helper, the Holy Spirit, that Christ promised fell upon his disciples and officially inaugurated the new temple dwelling place of God. And no longer then did he confine his special presence to the temple. But now his special presence, his dwelling place is us as individuals, and together as his church. We are the house of God. The holy temple he is building for himself to dwell in. The triune God, having laid the solid foundation of completed revelation, is now building for himself a temple in which to dwell, constructed by and from his people. So you are both the house of God and you are the household of God. You are his child, you are his family, and together as his church, we are the dwelling place of God. God has promised not only that he will put his spirit within you, but that when and wherever his church gathers, he is especially there. In the same way he was previously specially in that holy of holies. And with us here now. That we are individually temples of dwelling for God, and collectively we are the temple of God. This is more than simply his omnipresence. This is quite literally living, as Sproul said on that video we watched this past Wednesday night, moment by moment forum deo, before the face of God. We are his house, we are his temple, we are his dwelling place. How does that change how you live, church? Sit with that. How does that change how we worship? Do you really know? Have you really considered that when the church gathers here, God is particularly here, present with us? How did those Old Testament Jews enter into the presence of God in through that holy of holies? Go read some of those sections. Did they come reverently? Did they come flippantly? Did they come thinking about lunch? Did they come pretending to pay attention? Did they come intentionally to enter into the presence of God? Church, we need to stop and realize who we are by the grace of God. And the reality that God's special presence in his church and this the special way in which he is knitting us together, he is here in his temple. And you are each moment, and particularly here when the church gathers, really in the special presence of God. And if you can't feel his presence, if you don't take seriously the truth of God's particular presence, it's because you've never sat with the truth behind what it really means. That God is here and that we are his house.

36:51And certainly he sees all.

36:54He sees all at all times, everywhere. But he is here, church. He leans in close to us this morning to receive our worship, his worship. We know this is true because Paul tells us that in Christ we are being joined together, brick by brick, laid upon his foundation, and we are his special dwelling place. So may we know this truth today. Church, may we seek to honor him, may we seek to please him, may we seek to obey him as the Spirit reveals to us the reality that we are his house. And even more, we are his household. Laid upon his foundation with Christ our brother and our Lord as the cornerstone. I'm closing. I said I didn't know much about the particulars of building a house, and that is still true. But I do know the particulars of God's construction project. Pivotal stone. In the giving of his full and complete revelation of redemption, the foundation has been laid, and it is perfect. This is the blessed good news of redemption that Christ came to save sinners, and that Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is the rock upon which we build. He builds the church. Further, he is building a perfect structure, even though it may not seem like it right now. It is perfect. Because it is God who is building it, and he is building us. And he is knitting us together, his church and his temple, where he is specially dwelling. He is bringing us all together again, not merely as a collection of individuals, kind of just making it through life together, but he is bringing us together as a family. Whether you like it or not, church, we are a family. That will be together not until the kids grow old and go off to college or something, not until someone closes their eyes in this life. But he is bringing together a new and holy household that will be together forever. This is the project that God is working on.

40:00Don't you long to see this work completed? And let us press on in faith.

40:09Knowing his work will be completed. And let us live and worship in holy fear, church, in reverence, knowing this great and awesome God has chosen us to call his home. What a project. That a sinner such as I and that a rag tag group of misfits such as we are, by his grace and in and through Christ have become the dwelling place of God. We thank you for the gospel of redemption in Christ that is contained within these ages, Lord. Within your living word. We pray and ask, Lord, that we would continue to always maintain this and this alone as our foundation. We pray for your grace and mercy to build us, Lord, into the temples that you would have us to be. And into the reality that you are dwelling in us, Lord, that we are truly living quorum Deo. Or may we as individuals and then collectively as this temple, Lord, your church, may we live and obey and honor and worship as though you are here with us because you are here. We thank you for your presence. Thank you for your spirit. Thank you for your word. Thank you for Christ. I ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.