A People Built by God
By Pastor Matt Black
28
January 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 2:19-20
Open your Bibles to Ephesians 2, and let’s read verses 19-22. The title of this morning’s message is “A People Built by God”.
We will be looking specifically at Ephesians 2:14-22, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Introduction: Look around you this morning. God’s done this. He’s put us together as one body in Christ. Not only could we not accomplish this, but none of us would have wanted it in our old, selfish nature. Aren’t you glad God knows a whole lot more than us?! God is calling out a people for His name. He is saving one person at a time and putting them together into one Body for His purposes. We come to this text once again and we must realize what an amazing and gracious God we serve! He is a God who is just and holy—He is light and in Him is no darkness at all! He is a God who is the Judge of the whole earth. The angels cry out to Him day and night “Holy, Holy, Holy”! And if you and I were in His very presence for just one moment, we would shout the same thing!
God takes a group of sinful people—people like you and like me—people who have loved their sin, and He cleans them up. He makes them holy through the blood of His Son, and He makes them desire holiness—hungering and thirsting after righteousness. He puts them together to serve Him and to do His will on this earth. That’s why we are gathered here together this morning. We are here together. We are united by the Spirit of God. We are one body in Christ today. God is putting this masterpiece He calls the church together. He has been doing it from the foundation of the world, but since Pentecost, He has been doing it in a very much accelerated way.
Outline
I. So first we see there needs to be a Transformation of materials before God can build. What are the Materials of God’s building? How can God make you and me to be what He wants us to be? First when God builds something there has to be a Transformation.
The Lord can’t use us like we are. It would be a horrible edifice—a monstrous and ugly building. You can’t build much of anything out of broken bricks, molded dry wall, and rotted 2 by 4s. There has to be a transformation. That’s what Paul says in verse 19, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners.” You were something, but now you are no more! A great transformation has taken place. Paul says in verse 10 of chapter 2, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We were “dead in trespasses and sins” but God has taken these old dry dead bones and raised us from the dead! There has been a new creation, a resurrection, a spiritual rebirth! It’s awesome, it’s living, it’s thriving. It’s new!! God has transformed us!
You were a stranger and a foreigner to the grace of God. You did not bear God’s family name. You didn’t seek God (Romans 3:11). You were a citizen of this world.
1. Strangers. A stranger is a person who finds himself among a foreign people. Specifically, a non-Christian does not feel at home around Christians. He feels like a stranger. You just don’t see non-believers hanging out with God’s people. They just don’t feel comfortable. Look back at verse 12. The verse tells us to do something. We are to “Remember…” that there was a time when we were “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
What were we strangers to? We were not connected to the “covenants of promise”. What were those? All the covenants had to do with the promise of Christ coming into the world. In fact this verse says it plainly. We were “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
What are you hoping for in this world? What are the promises you are looking toward? That big raise? A bigger car? A better lifestyle? Or maybe you’ve lost hope. Maybe you are entertaining yourself to death. There was a time when all of us here had no hope. There were no lasting promises. So some here turned to alcohol to numb the pain. Some turned to other pleasures of sin. But we learned something! All the promises of the world are empty!!
How about you today? Are you a stranger to the promises of Christ? Listen the Lord says that if you trust in Him, He will remove your sins from you “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12)! Listen, without Christ we are all strangers from God’s covenants of promise. You have no hope and no promise without Christ. We were all in that miserable condition at one time in our lives.
2. Foreigners. Secondly, he says that those who know Christ are no more… foreigners in verse 19. A foreigner is someone who is a member of another country. We are all by nature born as
We have a parallel again with verse 12. We are to to “Remember…” that there was a time when we were “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
There was a time when we were foreigners to the Kingdom of God. All people on earth are born estranged to God. David said, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).
The Great Wickedness in our Hearts—we are Foreigners to the Grace of God!
To be part of God’s kingdom and family, you have to bear His likeness. We don’t look like Christ, we look like Adam!! I do not know who it is, but we all could call ourselves the “Chief of Sinners” for to break the Law in one point is to be guilty of all. Imagine, being guilty of breaking all of God’s commandments at once. That is what every act of your sin and my sin is. Wickedness today is great in the earth. It is great in our hearts! Today is no different than the days of Noah. God looks upon this earth and “He sees that the wickedness of man is great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
But now look at verse 19. We are going to see…
I love those two words “NO MORE”. Those are important words. There is a definite and unmistakable transformation in the Christian life. I say to you today, you do not have to wonder if you are a Christian. You either are or you are not. There is no half way point. That is the message of the Bible. “Ye must be born again” (John 3:3). You don’t have to worry and wonder if someone is a Christian—there is a massive change! You are NO MORE strangers and foreigners!!
The whole point of these verses is that God is doing something in this sin cursed world. He would have been just to let it all go to destruction. He could have left us all in our misery, but He has stopped the destruction. He has stepped in.
You see again, there is an awesome transformation! “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The Bible says if you know Christ, you are no longer a foreigner and stranger, but a fellowcitizen with the saints and of the household of God.
Transformation: Lazarus!!
Do you see that in your life something has to change? You if God is going to use any one of us, He must change us! He must transform us! God’s not going to take you to heaven as you are. He will meet you as you are, but He will not allow you to stay as you are. You begin your life with repentance from sins and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You TURN away from all you are doing. That’s a BIG radical change. God makes us a new creation. We are new creatures in Christ.
So we see in order to use us and build us into anything, God must work a transformation in us! Secondly, we are going to see the three ways that God illustrates HOW He’s going to build us.
II. Secondly, we need to see three Illustrations of what God does build.
God is a great illustrator. He shows things to us in living color. When Jesus was on this earth, He spoke illustrated great truths with stories and every day examples. God wants to paint and illustrate what He wants us to be here today.
Remember Paul tells us that once we were citizens of this world. 2:2, We “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”. We were “children of God’s wrath”.
When you are a part of a city or a Kingdom have
Ø a common language. We have a language of the heart that loves God.
Ø We have a common allegiance. When you are a citizen of a country, you have your allegiance to it.
Ø We have a common heritage. Those in Christ have a story to tell. The day they came into the kingdom.
You see Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light…”
You and I are part of the city of God. It is a city whose walls are the presence and lordship of Christ! We are all hidden and sheltered in the cleft of the Rock!!
He says, you are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Ø In a family you have Identity.
Ø In a family you have a resemblance. You resemble the Father. 2 Corithians 3:18 tells us we are changed into the image of Jesus Christ more and more every day as we walk in the Spirit.
Ø You have a true family here.
Ø You may not be accepted by your family here on earth. But what does Psalm 27:10 say? When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
III. What is God’s Plan for the building? How shall we build the church? The Construction:
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
1. Submission the Word of God “apostles”. The word “apostle” means one who is sent out—specifically they were sent out with a message—with the teaching and doctrine of Jesus Christ. —one thing about believers is they love the message of the apostles. They love the apostles’ doctrine. They search the Word of God and they scorch it into their hearts. There is one thing your life as a Christian must be built around—the study of the Word of God.
a. A Searching--Private reading. Hungering and thirsting
There is a famine in the land! A famine not for bread and water, but for the Word of God (Amos 8:11)!
b. A Scorching—that burning of the Word of God onto your heart! Meditation and memorization.
2. Fellowship around the Word of God—“prophets”. The New Testament church is build around the prophets. These prophets are probably not referring to the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Jonah, and Elijah. It is true that we are built upon them. But this is referring to the office of the preacher in the New Testament. There is one thing as a Christian your life must be built around. The preached Word of God and the fellowship of the saints.
If you think you can grow and change without corporate accountability, you are dreadfully proud and arrogant. Christ has instituted the local church as a haven and a greenhouse for spiritual growth.
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Do you have Christ? John 14:6 “I am the way”
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Are you living in coordination with the Spirit? Are you growing as a holy temple in the Lord?
Do you love the brethren? Do you love holiness?
Conclusion: When I was in Spain, I helped with the re-construction of a 300 year old farmhouse there. It almost had to be rebuilt. The walls were crooked, the floors were unstable, and the when we built the roof was falling apart. We just about had to knock the thing down and start over again.
Listen God doesn’t need to do that. He doesn’t throw us out. He can take everything messed up in your life and do a total transformation. Have you experienced a time when Jesus Christ took you out of the Kingdom of this world and put you into His Kingdom? Has there been a time when you have repented of your sinful life and exchanged your life for the life of Christ? Are you a new creation? Has the Lord given you a new heart and new desires and new meaning in life? Perhaps you are here today, and you need to turn to the Lord as a little child and ask Him to make you new and bring you into His family today.
Maybe you are here today and you are a believer. You are trying to build your life. You are manipulating your work situation to get a better pay check. Maybe you are manipulating your spouse into your image. God is not a real, vital part of the building process in your life. If we were to examine your life, it would be obvious that your life has your finger prints all over it. Listen Christian, you didn’t get saved by your own great ideas, and you are not going to grow and change by your own plan and design. You’ve got to let God do the building in your life.
Closing Hymn: 411 The Solid Rock