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.