Ephesians 2:18-22

Cornerstone Church

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And I want to say good afternoon. This is being recorded after we actually had the session here.

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I could not figure out how to get the camera started, so as I'm going to be teaching the lesson for you here on the camera, there's not going to be any interactive discussions from the sanctuary because that happened last

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Wednesday. But I wanted to put us where we are. We're still in Ephesians 2 and we're finishing up the chapter.

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Ephesians 2 takes us through a very systematic journey. It starts out, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

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And that's the definition of the unbeliever. That's the definition of all of us. It talks how we follow the course of this error and we listen to the prince of the power of the error, that being

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Satan. The wonderful news starts in verse four where it says, Odetheo, but God.

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And it talks about how God has raised us up in his mercy and in his love, where we're raised together with Christ Jesus, brought together.

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Of importance, because then it goes on and it talks about by grace, i .e. saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

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It's the gift of God, not of works. Of importance is following the pronouns.

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In the beginning, it says you were dead in trespasses and sins in the way you once walked.

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This text does not identify whether at this time Paul is talking to the

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Gentiles at Ephesus, the Jews at Ephesus. And in fact, as we get further into this chapter, it really talks about, he's emphasizing the fact that the

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Gentiles are absolutely no different than the Jews when it comes to how

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God responds to them and how God provides an offer of peace. It says in verse 12, remember at that time you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers for the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

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This chapter goes on and talks about how we've been reconciled and brought together and that Christ has made the peace for us through his body on the cross.

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What happens now as we come to the end of this chapter is the aperture of view now is expanded so that anybody who is under the blessing of verse four,

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Odetheo, and anybody who has responded to the call, by grace you have been saved through faith, not of your own doing, it's the gift of God.

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Anybody who's under those blessings and that definition, that identification is now being brought together as if we are all one and we are all going to be under the blessing of God and we all are going to be built together for the purpose of God, for the purpose of his church, for the glory of his kingdom.

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We will see that now as we get into Ephesians two, verses 18 to 22.

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I'm gonna open us with a word of prayer. Our Lord Father, we come to you in gratitude for your love and all because we are so unworthy, but accepting the fact that you brought us together, you raised us up together in your rich mercy because of your love and that by grace through the blood of Christ, we have been called, we have been saved.

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And so there's no dividing wall between any of us, we are all broken, that wall of hostility is gone and we are brought together as one new man together in you.

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But Lord, the passage goes on because there's a purpose that we fulfill here in the world and we are being built together to a holy temple.

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We are fellow citizens, there's a foundation, the ministry of the Trinity and it's all for your kingdom glory.

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We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to read verses 18 through 22 and then we'll unpack it as we go.

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For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. It starts out in verse 18 with the word, for through him, we both have access in one spirit.

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Now, as Pastor Jeff gave us last Sunday, this word for, gar in the Greek, it's actually a joiner and it takes the concept of what's going to follow as if the foundational proof for what proceeded.

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So let's look at what proceeded and I'm starting in verse 16. And it says that he reconciles us both to God in one body through the cross, killing the hostility.

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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

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Two observations in that. One is that there is a reconciliation to God that is necessary because in our state of sin, we are separated from God.

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In fact, in our state of sin, we cannot even approach God. And then he comes and preaches peace to all, those who are far off and to those who are near.

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There is no differentiation in God. So it says that we have access through the

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Trinity to him, for through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father.

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Well, what does it access to the father mean? And why is that so important? It's because we're no longer excluded.

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Now, if we go back to Genesis chapter three, verse 24, it's the end of the creation story.

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It's the end of the story within the garden because at the end of that story, we see

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Lucifer becoming Satan coming to earth and deceiving Eve and deceiving Adam through Eve's encouragement that you can make yourself like the most high.

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And so there is an abandonment of an acceptance of God as the sole creator, of God as the sole

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God. And so they disobey and they put themselves in a position where they shouldn't be.

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Their eyes are opened and they realize now that they have sinned and they are ashamed of their nakedness. They make coverings and they actually hide themselves from the father.

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So as God comes down to the garden in the cool of the day to walk as was his habit, they hid in the garden and God said, well, where are you?

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He knew, but the point is that did they know what they are doing was actually hiding from him.

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And so the judgment is decreed by God on Adam, on Eve, on Lucifer and on all of creation.

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And then in the end of verse 24, God drives Adam and Eve out of the garden and places a chair of them as guards with the flaming sword that none may ever enter again.

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That direct access with God, which was so beautiful in the garden is gone. This passage says we now have access.

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Well, for the Jews, the access was very, very limited as we go through the

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Old Testament. If I go into Leviticus 16, verses one and two, and the

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Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they offered before the

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Lord and died. The Lord said unto Moses, speak unto Aaron thy brother that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not.

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For I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat. For the Jews, access to God was something that they could not even consider.

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In fact, they could not even say the word Yahweh. It was too holy for them. So for the

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Jews, the presence of God, the Shekinah glory which resided within the temple, within the tabernacle, within the temple and the holy of holies was there and it was in their midst, but it was at a distance.

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In fact, the people had no direct access to it. The only opportunity to even go into the very, very presence of God, once a year the high priest going in, having to make sacrifice to cleanse himself, but if he went in unworthily, he would die.

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That's what happens to Aaron's two sons. In fact, it was so severe that if they died in the presence, nobody could even go in and remove the dead body.

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They would die. And so they put bells on the hem of the garment and as long as people outside heard the bells, all was okay, but when the bells stopped, they had a rope tied around the high priest so that they could pull the body out.

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There was no direct access. John actually says, or Jesus says in 14 .6,

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no one comes to the father but by me. And so even for us, without the shed blood of Christ, without the presence of Christ, the mediation of Christ, the high priest ministry of Christ, we don't even have direct access, but now we do.

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And it says in Hebrews 10 .19 to 22 that we have access to enter into the holy place by his blood.

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That's you and me, brothers and sisters. We do have access. We are no longer constrained, waiting for the high priest once a year to go in and only anticipating that that person was worthy to go in because if they weren't, then even that access was destroyed.

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But you and I, my brothers and sisters, we are allowed direct access to the father through the blood of Christ because that blood washes us.

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And so when we approach God, and as we're being accused by Satan, the father looks, the son says,

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I covered that sin. Please look through them through my blood. And that's that Odatheo, that although we were so badly in sin, we are now raised up and it's through his blood.

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We do have access. And then it says in 1 Corinthians 12 .13,

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we have been baptized into one body by one spirit. Now I want you to observe in this chapter that it says we have access through the trinity,

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I'm sorry, for we have access through him in one spirit to the father.

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There's a trinity right there. Our access is through Christ, one by Christ, because of Christ's blood.

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But through the Holy Spirit, our access is enabled so that we can get there. And the objective is to get to the father.

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You see, the Holy Spirit ministers to your heart. The blood of Christ cleanses us.

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And the holiness of God is where we desire to abide. We both have access.

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And in this passage, the both is Jews and Gentiles, which in the time of the Old Testament, that's all people.

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You're either a Jew or you're a Gentile. All humanity has the opportunity for access through Jesus by the

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Holy Spirit to the father. But this is limited only to those who have responded in accordance with Ephesians 2 .8.

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Because it says in Matthew 10 .33, that whoever denies Jesus, he will deny him before the father.

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So for the individual that has not turned to Jesus, for the individual who has not responded to the grace through faith, and when the evil one is up in front of the father and saying, that person is a sinner, that person has sinned,

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Jesus is not turning to the father and saying, but I died for that sin. Because without the acceptance of the blood, the blood does not wash us clean, white as snow.

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So verse 18 is a promise of hope that we both have access through him by one spirit to the father.

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And so it goes on again in verse 19 to say, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

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Do you realize that our prior condition was a stranger and alien?

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But we become fellow citizens with the saints, we become part of Christ's family, we become part of Christ's kingdom, we become part of Christ's church.

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When Jesus challenges Peter, who do you say that I am? Eventually he said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living

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God. And Jesus says, blessed art thou, Simon. For that profession that you made on that rock,

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I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. For those who have come to him, for those who have surrendered to him, we are no longer strangers and foreigners, we actually are part of his body.

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Ezekiel paints a picture of the dry bones. And the picture of the dry bones is that the nation of Israel has distuned

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God, they have walked away from God, and so they are, for all intents and purposes, nothing more than dry bones who are not in a relationship with the

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Father. In fact, in verses 11 to 13, it says that the dry bones of the house of Israel, cut off, the

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Lord will not respond to them, they will not know. They are actually separated from God.

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But in verse 22 to verse 20, 21 to 22 of Ezekiel 37, there's a future promise.

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And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king to them all, and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore.

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Verse 21 says, say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whether they be alone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into the land of their own.

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And then it goes on to say, they will no longer be two nations, but one. There is a future and there is a promise that we've already seen partly fulfilled, there is a future promise.

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The promise was not fulfilled at the time of returning from exile from Babylon, because that was just the southern kingdom.

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And this passage talks about the two nations, the northern nation, the southern nation from the time of Raboam Jeroboam.

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It says they will be joined into one, and they will be recognizing one king.

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We've seen a partial fulfillment of that when the nation of Israel was restored, but not a full completion of that prophecy.

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That is yet to come at the end of times as we look in the book of Revelation. But note that that passage speaks about God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, and how he is going to protect them.

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We go further into the New Testament, into Romans 11, and we get now a picture of how the promise of Genesis 12 is fulfilled.

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You see, in Genesis 12, God tells Abram, I will make you a great nation, it will be like the sand in the sea.

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And then it says in verse three, and through you, all nations will be blessed.

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That verse says that because of the promise giving to Abram, and because of how

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Abram and the people of Israel should be light into the world and showing

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God to the world, through them, all nations of the world will be blessed. Well, this becomes more and more obvious as we get into the

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New Testament. And as we go into Romans 11, in verse seven, it talks about how this is actually taking place in what we now know, what we call now, as the

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Church Age. It's that separation between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.

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It's that parentheses, it's that time of the Gentiles. And in Romans 11, it says that Israel has not obtained what it's looking for because of the hardening of their heart.

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This promise of a joining and of a restoration that comes out of Ezekiel 37 hasn't been fulfilled yet.

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They have not gotten what they've gotten. And it says in verse 11, by their transgressions, they have remained separated.

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And then it says because of their transgressions, salvation comes to the Gentiles to make the

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Jews jealous. What it says in chapter 11, in verse 17, is that the vine representative of the body of Christ, of the

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Church of Christ, on that vine, branches have been cut off. And as those branches are cut off because of the hardening of their heart, because of their transgressions, in the place comes branches from the other vine.

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That would be the Gentiles. And it says that branches are cut off that you might be grafted in.

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And we join in to one common body, fed by one common Holy Spirit, working through us through the ministry of Christ, through the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit. And it says in verse 32 that he shuts those out in disobedience that he might show mercy to all.

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All mankind is disobedient, but all mankind is given the opportunity for restoration.

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It says in verse 19, for you are no longer strangers and aliens. You see, that's what we were.

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And while that does talk about the fact that there are Gentiles outside the nation of God, it more importantly says that all of us, prior to being restored by the blood of Christ, we are aliens and foreigners separated from God.

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We are not citizens of his people. We cannot earn that position. We cannot claim that position for ourselves.

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But it says we are no longer strangers and aliens, but we are fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God.

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We become a body of believers worldwide, built into the body of God as fellow citizens.

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Starting in verse 20, it continues with the picture, and it says that we're gonna be built on a foundation.

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It says built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.

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We have an individual, a family that we know that put an addition on their house, and that addition was placed on posts as opposed to a full footing foundation, but the posts were not sunk deep enough into the ground.

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And so as the frost comes and as time goes, those posts are not stable and solid enough, and that actual addition can actually start to shift.

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We are built upon a foundation that does not shift. We are built upon a foundation that is solid.

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We are built upon a foundation of his word given to us by the apostles and prophets.

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That's what it meant here. It's not the apostles and prophets that are the foundation.

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It's the message given to us by the apostles and prophets. The prophets are the ones who proclaimed and foretold and prophesied what

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God would have to say, and it was the prophets that proclaimed to us the true message that comes from our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's the foundation. And as we come together as fellow citizens, we actually start to build on that foundation because that foundation is set in truth.

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It is not built on shifting sand. So when the storms come, that foundation will not shift.

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So when the storms of culture come up against our church and work to encourage pastors toward perhaps satisfying and tickling the ears so that people will feel good about themselves in coming to church, and that foundation is not true and that foundation is not solid, and that ministry will shift.

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But as the word of God is held to be relevant and true and never changing, and the only foundation upon which a ministry can be built, when that's the foundation that's used, we praise

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God that he is continuing to encourage Pastor Jeff to teach and to preach just the true word and not to allow the cultural influences to change things so that people might feel good about themselves.

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The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and get this, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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When that ministry, when we are built on a foundation of the true word, which was given by the apostles and prophets, and that word comes to us, it will actually judge us when we fall short, and it will actually convict us and draw us to it, and it said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

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It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

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But if we introduce something into that message that is outside of the scripture, we're introducing defects into the building, that foundation is now defective.

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It can no longer stand up under the storms that will assault us, will assault the church.

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We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. We must be realizing that it is the true word of God that we stand to.

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Now, the next phrase is so vital.

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It says we're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The chief cornerstone is

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Christ Jesus himself. When you're getting ready to place the foundation for a building, it needs to be in the right position.

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And all of the architectural drawings, the engineering drawings have to have a true reference point from which everything will be measured.

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It will have the definition of what direction should it point, how far should it go, how high should it go.

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There has to be a cornerstone that can be dependent upon. Even the foundation requires on that cornerstone being perfect.

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Our cornerstone is Jesus Christ. If there is any other cornerstone that we use, then there is the opportunity for who makes a determination what direction to go, how high to go, how far to go, because everybody defines their own starting point, their own cornerstone.

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It says in 1 Corinthians 3 .9 that we are God's workers and God's building.

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We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that very word. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, that definition that everything is measured off of.

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But we are being built, and do you get that? We are not just passively being placed upon, we are actually doing, we are actually being involved in establishing and building this church.

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I want us to know that when we build our church, when we build our fellowship, when we build our ministry within our family, when we build our opportunity to share the word of Christ to a lost world for the harvest of souls, the harvest of souls can only occur through the grace of God.

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The harvest of souls can only occur through the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The harvest of souls can only occur when this profession and confession is sin and majesty of God.

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That's all defined by the chief cornerstone, and it's all made solid by a foundation that is not on shifting sand, but is on solid rock.

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It says that we are built upon a foundation, the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

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Verses 21 and 22, it says that the whole structure being joined together grows into the holy temple in the

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Lord, in him also you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Holy Spirit. The whole structure is joined together. There are no individual elements to this structure.

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There are no standalone stones on this structure. There are no self -sufficient or self -performing elements to this structure.

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The entire structure is joined together, one another. Each one of us are given gifts by God according to his purpose for the equipping of the saints, for the building of the one another.

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If we believe that we can look at a foundation, good, that's the right thing to do, and if we can determine that there is a cornerstone, and that's awesome, but if we think that we can go this on our own and we don't need one another, we don't need the fellowship of the saints, we don't need the teaching from the pulpit, we don't need

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Bible studies, we don't need apologetics class, precepts class, we don't need this because we have

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God and we have the Holy Spirit and we're good enough with that, we're fooling ourselves.

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We are being built together into a holy temple. We're joined together.

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There must be an interdependency on one another. Not every element has the full strength to support the weight of a body, of a temple, of a building, but each element has its own purposes.

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If you were building a wall within your temple, within your building, your home, and you had supports, studs if you want to call them, wood now often they're aluminum, and they would go from the footings of the foundation up to the top of the room, and you were to put in a door.

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If you didn't put a header across the top of where that window or that door is gonna be, the space above it would have no support.

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Every element is required. If you just had that header across the door without proper supports holding it up, that header would not support.

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The whole building is fitly framed together. Where do you fit into the building? What is your gift?

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How should you be working? We each need to be working with each other, encouraging each other, and in fact, helping each other with so much love that we can say, we think that you've got a problem there.

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Please, please, go to the Lord. The whole building is built together, and it says that not only are we just built together for something, we are built together as a holy temple and as a dwelling place of God.

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For the Jews, after having left the garden, after being in captivity in Egypt and going into the wilderness, and God speaks through Moses and they built the tabernacle, then the

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Shekinah glory comes into the temple and God's presence is there, and they're guided by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night until it rests and then they stop, and all of these things are there, but each one of these individuals in their tents, surrounding the tabernacle when it was built, and then the temple when it's finally built in the land, each one of these went to the temple to go to the presence of God.

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Now, they were told, and this has always been God's way, that God wants their heart.

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What do I want from you but your heart? What's the first and greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

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The second, teach your, love your neighbors yourself. But they did not have that direct access to God, and they didn't have the indwelling of God.

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This has now changed because we are being built together into a dwelling place of God by the

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Spirit. It's not this building on 515 Mount Laurel Road, and it's not, as we anticipate, a building on 23

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Phillips Road that is the dwelling place of God. It's each one of us individually, and it's the one of us together, wherever two or three are gathered together, in mine ain't there am

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I in the midst of them. We are being built together, and the

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Holy Spirit dwells in you, 1 Corinthians 3 .16, we are a temple of God.

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There is no longer the definition of who you were by your ancestry.

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There is no longer a definition of who you were by what religion did you practice.

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There's no longer a definition of who you were. Were you a good person, or were you not a good person?

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Because in reality, we all were dead in trespasses and sins. Who we are now is defined.

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Odatheo, we are raised up together. We are drawn to him by his grace, and through faith we become, and we're built into a workmanship that is predestined to do what we're supposed to do.

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And so now we are brought together as fellow citizens, and we are built together on this foundation with the cornerstone, and as we join together in this work, in this life together, in building up his kingdom together by his grace, this grows and grows, and it says the gates of hell are not going to prevail against us.

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The picture at the end of this chapter takes us from that transition to a new definition to a glorious reality of what we become in him.

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We are being built, and I want you to catch that that is a continual action.

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It's not you were built, it's you are being built. So we should rejoice in the fact that God has called us and has made us fellow citizens with him.

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We should rejoice in the fact that we have this common grace. We should rejoice in the fact that there is a foundation and there is a cornerstone, but we should be obedient to the fact that we must be being killed.

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Always moving, always moving towards that goal. I want to close this session reading out of 2

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Corinthians 6, verses 14 to 18.

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Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. See, I want you to catch that, that there is a special relationship that believers have with believers, building together this temple.

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Now, this concept of not being unequally yoked applies in so many ways. It has to do with perhaps marriage.

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It has to do with perhaps business relationships. But I also want to say that it has to do with our ministry in Christ.

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If we are willing to allow the world to influence our message and our ministry, we are guilty of being unequally yoked.

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For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness?

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And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Of what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

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In what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living

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God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

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Wherefore, come out from among them, be ye separate, saith the

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Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the

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Lord Almighty. We are part fellow citizens with the saints, built upon the apostles, the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

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Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, working together, joining together, not staying by ourselves.

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But I want you to always remember that we cannot allow defective pieces to come in and be part of our building.

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We must recognize, we must always be in prayer for our pastor as he gives us truth because that's what we're built on and we're joined together.

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The whole body, fully framed together, growing unto an holy temple in the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

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Father God, we do know that in your plan, you called us, you gave us your grace, you even drew us in faith to you, you equip us with the

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Holy Spirit, your blood cleanses us so that when the Holy Father looks at us, we are seen, cleansed and we are now fellow citizens with your body, with you.

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We are able to have direct access to you. And so Lord, we're built together.

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We claim the truth of the word. That's all we claim is the truth of the word. We pray that we would always recognize when truth is not being proclaimed that we would desire your word for the equipping of the saints.

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We rejoice, Lord, that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. All that we are, all that we become is measured by you, is established by you, is defined by you.

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And now Lord, as we grow together into a holy temple, the Holy Spirit, that we would shine a light into a world, that we would speak your truth and that we would always rejoice in you and in your hope, that we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.