This morning, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, I'm only going to be preaching to you from verse 21, because I want to talk to you about how the whole building of Christ's church is being fitted together, and how it grows. as it says here, into a holy temple in the Lord. I'll begin reading at verse 14. So let's bow together for prayer before I begin. Dear Lord, we thank you for the book of Ephesians, which was written by the apostle Paul so that we might understand so many things about your great salvation and the great things of your building your church, Lord Jesus. And we've come to a verse in which we need to understand how it is that the church you're building, your body, is fitted together and becomes this holy temple in which you dwell. So we pray that you will come to us now, that you would open our eyes to this truth, that you enlighten our minds, that you will help us to take it in, the greatness of your purposes, even in this local church, as well as your universal church. For we pray and we ask these things in your blessed name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Ephesians 2, and beginning in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, You who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through him, we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers. and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So verse 21 is not to be isolated from the verses that go before it. Indeed, it is the culmination of all the verses which went before it in this chapter. That is, that there's a spiritual building which God is building out of the raw materials of sinful people, whom he's transforming by his grace to become a holy temple in the Lord. God the Father and God the Spirit In connection with the finished work of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ is building an everlasting building made up of people, Jew and Gentile, who are now and will continue to be forever His church, to worship Him forever. So at this time, we want to think together, first of all, about how the whole building is being fitted together. And following that, we will look secondly at how this whole building is growing together into a holy temple in the Lord. So first of all, let's think together about the whole building, how the whole building is being fitted together. We've seen in past messages that Christ died to abolish the enmity between Jew and Gentile. By his death, he tore down the old spiritual building of the Jewish people as being the only covenant people of God. And he began building his church. So we Gentiles were brought near, it says here, by the blood of Christ. In dying on the cross, Christ brought the whole Old Testament Jewish system and dispensation to an end. And in its place, he established the beginning of his universal church composed of believers called from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. This spiritual Israel is what is being spoken of here as being a building fitted together. But how are we fitted together? It is that we Gentiles are fellow citizens with the Jewish saints. We are citizens of the same spiritual city of God because we have been built on the same spiritual foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone. So the Lord Jesus fulfilled all of the law, both moral and Levitical, but he abolished then the whole ceremonial law. The moral law stands forever because it has its origin and its basis in the divine nature. God therefore expects all believing men to keep his law. in relation to Christ having fulfilled it, so that they themselves might learn to keep it better. Now, I hope that you can see that learning to keep the moral law, the Ten Commandments and the two first and greatest commandments, is something that is your duty in respect to learning Christ. Christ, who had the law in his heart, and then kept it in relation to all of his words and all of his actions. So I'm trying to say to you that the moral law of God is unchanged and unchangeable. But the ceremonial law was given to Israel as a positive, what theologians call a positive law. That is, it has its foundation simply in the divine will. And it was established for a period of time among one people, even Israel. And since then, its purpose has been fulfilled among them. Then we need to see that God set it aside. And now since Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law and set it aside, all Jews and Gentiles are together on the same spiritual level in regard to all the privileges and all the blessings of salvation. So some real discernment is needed in our day with regard to this truth as to what it implies. So I want you to turn with me over to Galatians chapter 3 and I want to read to you verses 26 to 29. The Apostle Paul says here, and I can begin reading in verse 25, but after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, meaning the law, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise. Now, what I want you to see is the truth in relation to the outworking of these verses in the way that we see the various categories of people who are mentioned here. All those who are in Christ have put on Christ. That is, that they've clothed themselves, spiritually speaking, in his righteousness. by faith in him. And they have been spiritually baptized into Christ and they have put on the spiritual garments of Christ in terms of their being one of his holy children. So Paul is saying here that God would have them to change their prejudiced view of how they were to see racial and ethnic distinctions. They were to change their prejudiced view of civil liberty distinctions and gender distinctions. They were to do this in relation to their now being a part of the universal body of Christ. These distinctions were not to be held on to in the body of Christ in terms of excluding any person from the privileges and blessings of their being seen as a Christian, or in terms of their participating in the spiritual fellowship of the church. For we are all one in Christ. Now this is a very important and encouraging truth for every Christian, to know that we are one in Christ and not excluded from any of the ordinances of the services of worship and the fellowship of the church. But what we must also recognize in relation to this important truth is that Paul is not saying that these distinctions must be eliminated completely in our minds. We are not to think that there is no longer any such thing as a Jew or any such thing as a Gentile, for example. For Paul specifically addresses Jews in Romans, the book of Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11, and he maintains that he himself is a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. He calls them his brethren and his countrymen. Paul says that their conversion to Christ, in chapter 11 he talks about this, will be life from the dead to the church and their fulfillment will be riches, he says, to the Gentiles in Romans 11, verses 12 and 15. And so we're not to think that somehow that those who, for example, were slaves in Paul's day were supposed to rebel against their masters because there was no such distinction any longer. In fact, Paul says the very opposite. In Ephesians chapter six, verse five, he said, bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters, according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart as to Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart and with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Neither are we to annihilate gender distinctions, as has become common in our day, thinking that it is somehow good to raise our children in a gender-neutral way and let them choose for themselves whether they want to be male or female. Such confused teaching undermines many of the gender role responsibilities that Paul inculcates in these letters that he writes to us in relation to children being taught the importance of what it means to fulfill God's holy will in relation to how we ought to think and act, in relation to ourselves, and people around us. Indeed, it affects our whole society in terms of what is right for a person to be doing, a man or a woman, to be doing in church, in the home, and in our society. So in relation to the church, let us see that although Christ has broken down the barrier between Jew and Gentile, and he's made them into one new man and himself, that this does not mean that there is no such thing any longer as an ethnic Jew. or that the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will not have a much greater fulfillment in years to come in relation to national Israel's conversion to Christ. These things do need clarification in our day because there is a spiritual Israel. I'm going to assert this for your edification. There is a spiritual Israel composed of Jews and Gentiles and spiritual circumcision is of the heart for both Jews and Gentiles in all generations. But clarifying of these things is not found when it is said that Gentile believers are true Jews. as though the ethnic distinctions no longer exist. And I want to show you this, and so turn with me over to Romans chapter 2, and I want to look at verse 28. Romans chapter 2 and verse 28, Paul says here, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit." And then in chapter 3, verse 1, Paul says, what advantage then has the Jew Or what profit is circumcision? Much in every way. So it must be understood that there are some Christians who use verse 29 to suggest that we Gentile Christians are also the true Jews when Paul says that he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is of the heart. No. The ethnic distinction between Jews and Gentiles is not eliminated at all in this verse, nor all through this letter, nor in any other place in the whole New Testament. In the context of this verse, Paul is addressing the Jews in particular. He began addressing them in verse 17. of chapter two, and he continues making the distinction between Jews and Gentiles all the way through chapter three, verse 31. And in fact, in verse 29 of chapter three, he says, or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. So the reason that I bring this up is because I want you to see how this spiritual building of the church is fitted together. The whole building consists of Jews and Gentiles, and it's fitted together by all of them believing in Christ. and by all of them receiving the same spiritual blessings. Jesus said that the gospel was to be preached to the Jew first, and then to the Gentiles. Not that the gospel would stop being preached to the Jews, for God still has a purpose in relation to the Jews, all the way from the call of Abraham on until the last day when Christ returns. And in the future we are told that all of Christ's church will be blessed in a mighty way through the calling of the Jews to salvation as a nation of ethnic people in the future. Paul says that their conversion to Christ will be life from the dead to the church, and their fulfillment riches to the Gentiles, as I've already mentioned, Romans 11, 12 and 15, and thus, The temple of God will be built, I'm trying to tell you, and the Bible shows us, in a most glorious way in the future. Now second, I want us to think about how this whole building is growing together into a holy temple that says, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple. in the Lord. So this holy temple is all of the New Testament Christians, all of the believing Jews and Gentiles, which make up the church universal, all during this whole church age. And every believer is spiritually placed, first of all by God, into the universal church when they are baptized into Christ spiritually, and then as time goes by, following their conversion to Christ, the Holy Spirit will lead them to consider their involvement with a local church. A new believer, I'm trying to show you, will seek to find a local church in which they themselves believe that they can grow. spiritually by receiving the word of God as it's preached. And they will seek to be baptized with water baptism to show forth their identification with Christ in his death, his burial and his resurrection. And then they will seek also to formally join the church in which they have been baptized as a believer. They will be longing to partake of the spiritual things of worship and the Lord's supper and fellowship with other believers in that local church. And this is how the individual believer grows. I'm trying to show you. They grow together with other believers in this holy temple. And over time then, Lord willing, in their heart, their mind, their actions, there will be a favorable response to the preaching of the word of God, and there will be joy in their learning to do what God commands in his word. I want you to see this more clearly, so turn with me over to 1 Peter 2, and verses one to five. Peter says, therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So you can see here how a local church grows together as a temple of the Lord. Each member of the church has to lay aside malice. You have to stop thinking bad thoughts about other Christians around you. You say that you love the brethren, but then you find that you are speaking against them at certain points, maybe many points, but all evil speaking, Peter says here, needs to be laid aside. So what is the answer to this? Peter says it's to desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. In other words, that you will take in all the principles and precepts of truth concerning what is right and wrong, and you will pray to shun the wrong and to do the right. Now that's something that may not come easy to you, your brethren around you. I am sure that if you knew it, and maybe you do, you would see that they want to help you with learning to obey the truth of the word. Perhaps you want a more worldly or selfish solution to your difficulties. You would like some easy fix for your problems and difficulties that you might have. What these verses are saying to us is that you have to lay aside thinking badly of Christians around you. You have to come to the place where you see that the Christians around you are not the problem when they're trying to tell you what is right. And so what each of us needs to do is to pray, to have a renewed mind, where we will listen to the voice of the Spirit in our heart who is leading us in our thoughts to think of ways that we might love the brethren. You see, this is God's way of building holiness into your life. As you examine your own heart and life, this will be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit at times. So you should study to do certain things. Study how to love the brethren. Study also to participate in the worship of God with all of your heart. Think of your fellowship and your communion with God when you come to worship here at church. Not just fellowship with the saints, although we do delight in that, don't we? But fellowship with God himself. So when the church is gathered, you come here with the attitude that you're going to give to him. your worship from a sincere and loving heart. And when you do this then, you're going to find that you'll be coming to realize that God's presence is there with you, ministering to you. And as we all do this in this assembly, we will find that God's presence will be known and felt among us more in our worship. because God will manifest himself to us in our heart and our mind in relation to the preaching of the word and your interaction with the people of God. It's here in our services of worship, I'm saying that you will learn to offer up the spiritual sacrifices of praise. But each of us must see the importance of loving God with all of our heart. And we must seek to know and appreciate the beauty of holiness. So I want you to turn with me over to 2 Corinthians 6, verses 11-16. It says here, Paul says here, O Corinthians, We have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same, I speak as to children, you also be open. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now, perhaps you see what the problem was here. Some of these Corinthian believers were always looking for excitement in their Christian life. And it wasn't always a holy kind of excitement. They sometimes thought back to their old pagan worship. It was more worldly. It was sensory oriented. And they knew that their idols were not true gods. But it appears from what Paul is saying here that they began to look back and long for the festivals of their old worship. Because of this drifting back to the past, they actually began to be restrained, Paul says here, in their affections towards others in the body of Christ. Even Paul himself, who had taught them so much about Christ. And we can apply this to our own time in this way. If you don't guard your heart from idols, I'm talking about idols like money, or seeking too much for earthly pleasures, or pride of knowledge, or desiring to be popular with people of the world, or even people in false religions, It's possible that your heart may become cold to the very people that you ought to fervently love. I'm talking about your pastor or other wise and mature believers who are in your own local church. Paul had to say to these brethren in verse 11, O Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us. but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same, I speak as unto children, you also be open. So what am I trying to say to you here this morning? I'm trying to show you that there is a growing love that always needs to be taking place between the people and their pastor in the church, and this is what Paul was writing about to the church at Corinth. Because there were some Christians who apparently were receiving the grace of God, he says to them in vain, Their affections toward Paul and Silas and Timothy, the ones who had preached the gospel to them, had waned. And they were not seeing how important it was to fervently love the ones who were ministering to them. Paul had to show them that they were part of a holy temple. And he had to tell them that God would indeed dwell in them and walk among them, if they would put away their compromised thinking and their idols, and then they could truly glorify him. Let me ask this question. Do we have idols nowadays? Yes, I'm sure that we do. For whatever is more important to you than communion with God and fellowship with the brethren is an idol. Do we need to repent in regard to a lack of love for the brethren or pursuing the vain things of this world's philosophies, methods, and ways of thinking? Well, perhaps so. But repentance, I'm trying to show you, will always bring the best things for you as a Christian. For you are pursuing righteousness. You are pursuing peace. You are pursuing God's blessing. So light and darkness, Paul says here, cannot have communion with each other. Righteousness and lawlessness cannot have fellowship together. So therefore, as a Christian, will you pray to learn to love the assembly of God's people and the place where his glory dwells? And then you will be able to say the words of Psalm 26, verses six to eight. I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar. Oh Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all your wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Well, let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture that we're studying about being fitted together. as a body of believers into a temple in which you dwell. And it excites our heart to think of the many great and glorious things that you have done for us in this church in years past, that you are doing for us now and that you will do in the future to knit our hearts together and to knit us together in this body so that we can be not only true worshipers of you, the true and living God, but be those who bear fruit to you in every good word and work. We pray that this would be the case in this assembly. We pray these things in your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.