Strong Members

The Church Is Not the Building

The Lord would bring an offering to you. We think about God that your offering, your sacrifice that you made, Jesus hanging upon that cross to atone for our sins, this sacrifice that has reconciled us, saved us.

There's nothing like it in this world, so much greater. No matter what we bring, Lord, to you, it pales in comparison to what you've already done. We love you because you first loved us. So Lord, today we pray that you would accept that widow's might, that little bit that we have to offer.

So small in comparison to what you have given, and yet coming from our hearts, Lord. Today, would you just take our hearts. We consecrate ourselves to you,.

And we pray that your word would help us.

To do that even more, because Lord, we admit that we climbed down off of the altar. Instead of offering ourselves completely to you, we take our lives back, and we start living for ourselves, Lord.

And I pray that today, you would help us.

To remember that sacrifice, and to give ourselves completely to you. In Jesus' name, amen. So we notice that there's a construction project going on, and one of the things that has happened is the door to the church, the sanctuary, has been moved back.

Before that, there was a door that came in on the side into what used to be a classroom. And so, as you came in, if you saw that the doors were closed, you could just veer to the right and come into the sanctuary without having to open a door.

So this morning, as I was coming in, I had my Bible, and I was thinking, and I was looking at things, and I tried to cut in through the classroom, and I found myself standing in the kitchen.

And I thought, wow, good news,.

And what am I doing?

Okay, so I came into the sanctuary,.

And then I talked to somebody, and they said, well, I was trying to go to the kitchen, which meant that he ended up in the women's bathroom.

So he didn't actually go in,.

But he was a little thrown off there.

So we're doing construction here, and it provides an awesome opportunity for us to think about a certain motif, the idea of building the church. And the first thing that I think we should say in the midst of a building project is that our church is not this building.

In 1 Corinthians 3, we're told, you are God's field, God's building. The people who gather in the name of Jesus are the church. The church is a body, it's people, it's sheep who come together to worship the living God.

So we can build a building, and that's good, and that's important, because we should make it a beautiful space and a wide space where more and more people can come to hear about Jesus Christ. That is great, but what matters a whole lot more is who we are as a people.

So we're gonna do a short series. You know, I tend to be an expository preacher, which means I like to take a passage of scripture and just break it down and explain the meaning of it. That's what I do 90 of the time, 95 of the time.

But for the next couple of weeks, I'm gonna do a topical series. Brace yourselves. We are going to talk about a construction motif that you see going through the New Testament, and that is the idea of Christ as a cornerstone, and building the church upon him.

And the question that I'd like for us to address, from a variety of texts, not just cornerstone texts, but we'll look at one a week, the question I'd like for us to address is what does it take for the church to thrive in a godless culture?

What does it take for a church to thrive in this 21st century America that we find ourselves living in, in this place? And I say it's a godless culture because look around. The culture has not been moving in the right direction.

Godlessness is on the rise. Church attendance is on the decline. The church in America seems to be going the same way that the church in Europe is going. There was a time when almost everybody in Europe would have said, I'm a Christian.

Now, many of them were only culturally Christian in the first place, but if you go to Europe now, it's maybe 2 of the continent that are truly born-again evangelicals that will say that I believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he died and that he rose from the dead, and I accept the Bible as the word of God.

What has happened?

A great apostasy has taken place. And the scary thing is, is it's moving here. It almost seems like America moves like 50 years behind Europe in terms of cultural trends that happen. It doesn't have to be that way.

The church can thrive in a godless culture. The question is, what does it take to thrive in a godless culture? Cornerstone will be the same.

What are we going to build on him?

So today, we're talking about the church being a people. In order for us to thrive, the first thing, and this will be today's message, the first thing that it means is strong members. Strong members. We're going to talk about what does it really mean to be a living stone.

Built on the cornerstone.

What does it mean to be strong in the faith? Because if this church is made up of strong members, people who believe in Christ and are strong in the faith, then it doesn't matter what floods come or what rains come.

We won't be stripped away.

We won't be washed away.

Matthew chapter seven says, there was a man who built his house on the rock. And when the storms came, it stood.

Because the house was founded on rock.

But the man who built on sand, when the storms came and the floods came, the house was washed away. We need to build our house on the rock. When I was in Florida, there would always be a thunderstorm.

In the afternoon in the summer.

So you would look out the bay window of a house and as the afternoon thunderstorms come in,.

In Florida, they come in,.

It almost seems like a hurricane every afternoon. And the wind starts blowing. The palm trees start bending under the force of the wind. All of the branches are pointing in the direction of the wind. And then the thunder and the lightning starts to hit.

The bolts are probably every 10 seconds. I mean, it's a fierce thunderstorm. But when you're sitting in a well-built house, and it's not scary at all, because you are in a well-built house that can withstand that storm.

There's nothing to fear.

Our church is a well-built house. We are building with solid members, those who are strong in the faith. So there's three things that need to characterize each one of us. Before we talk about growing and becoming bigger and things like that, what's most important is that each one of us is strong in the faith.

Each one of the building blocks of the house is strong. Imagine this, imagine if a house in Florida was built with cinder blocks, but every so often they just used packed sand to build the house. You could probably make a house stand like that by piecing it together.

But what would happen when the first strong storm.

Came through?

The packed sand would get washed away and before long the house would crumble. What makes a strong church is strong members, individuals who are converted, consistent, and consecrated. Those three things.

We're gonna talk about what each of those means by looking at some of the scriptures that relate to it. So the first will be this cornerstone motif.

And it just so happens,.

If we were preaching expositorily today, we would be in Luke chapter 20, okay? And this cornerstone passage falls in Luke 20, verse 17 and 18. So it lines up perfectly with where we've been going. Luke chapter 20 begins with Jesus in the temple, teaching.

In chapter 20, verse one, we learn that he's preaching the gospel. The word gospel comes from the Greek euangelium, from which we get our term evangel or evangelical. So when our church is called Mount Laurel Evangelical Free Church, the heart of what that means is that we believe the gospel.

Evangel, we are evangelicals, okay? Jesus is preaching the gospel, chapter 20, verse one. But some who oppose him, who are the leaders of Israel, come and begin to question his authority in verse two.

Turning the tables on them, he asks them a question about John the Baptist. And they have no answer for him. They kind of fall silent. And so he goes on in verse nine and following to tell a parable of a man who planted a vineyard.

And people rebelled against the authority of the vineyard's owner, and they wouldn't give the produce of the land.

To the vineyard's owner.

As the story unfolds, the Pharisees, those who are listening, recognize he's talking about them. And so their answer is not very profound. Look at verse 16. Jesus tells this great parable, and they didn't have anything to say about John the Baptist.

In verse 16, when they heard this, they said,.

Surely not, surely not.

That's all they had to say. Couldn't come up with anything better than that. And so Jesus then looks at them, and here's our crucial text.

Make note of it.

Verse 17 and 18. Jesus looked directly at them and said,.

What then is this that is written?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces.

And when it falls on anyone,.

It will, consider those words, stone that the builders,.

The builders are the leaders of Israel.

These are the people of God, leading the people of God. They're building, they have a beautiful temple. In fact, Herod, the tetrarch, was probably the greatest builder in Israel's history. He built incredible things all around the land of Israel, including a renovation of the temple.

The physical temple was looking good. And yet Jesus says, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The cornerstone is Jesus. He himself is the foundation stone of the church. And the leaders of Israel were not accepting his own testimony.

When he preached the gospel in chapter 20, verse one, he was preaching himself, making claims about who he was. Remember what he said? I am the living water. I am the bread of life. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I am the resurrection and the life.

He claimed to be the son of God,.

The I am, Yahweh, in the flesh.

He's claiming these things about himself. In other words, the gospel is all about Jesus. And Jesus lays that line down.

As a dividing line in the sand.

Pictured as a stone in the ground,.

He lays it down. The cornerstone is Jesus.

Verse 18, everyone who falls on that stone.

Will be broken to pieces.

Those are heavy words.

Now, we think about Jesus, and he's obviously the most loving person who ever lived. Greater love has no one than the one who lays down his life for his friends.

And he taught love, and he encouraged us to love,.

And he does love. But don't miss the wrath of God in displaying justice and focus so much upon the love of God that you miss the two sides that come together in perfect harmony. In the cross, you have the love of God demonstrated.

How so?

The father gives his son as a sacrifice, so everyone who believes will be saved. But in the cross, you also have the justice of God demonstrated.

How so?

That God does not just link it's sin. And pretend it didn't happen. Instead, sin is punished. His wrath is poured out. And in the cross, you have both the justice of God, his wrath satisfied in the death of Christ,.

And the love of God,.

The self-giving of Jesus to pay for sins. And so, what are we seeing here in verse 18? It's that justice side of the equation. It's the wrath of God. In fact, it's Jesus here who does the crushing. And when it falls on anyone,.

It's the cornerstone.

This stone then becomes a tool for crushing. It will crush. And that speaks of an eternal punishment. Something that you don't recover from.

Speaks of hell.

Judgment. Punishment.

And so the point of the gospel is to elevate Jesus Christ so that whoever believes in him will be saved. But that cornerstone is a dividing line. Those who come to that cornerstone and accept the gospel and believe the gospel will be built on that cornerstone like a living stone.

But many people, perhaps most, because the way is broad that leads to destruction, most people will hear the claims of Christ and it will trip them up. Because it doesn't fit the secular humanist culture that we live in, does it?

To claim, when Jesus claims that he is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through him.

He's making an exclusive claim.

And it's hard to hear. And so most people will trip on that stone. Doesn't fit their worldview. It doesn't elevate them. Most people will trip on the cornerstone. But those who stand upon it will stand on a rock.

And they will not be shaken. They will be strong. And so the question that we have to talk about here.

Is are you standing on the rock?

The first point is converted. Are you converted? I do think that in our culture, even in evangelicalism, we've been very heavily influenced by psychology. It's important to protect the self-esteem of people.

And so we're so quick to tell somebody, don't worry, you've been converted, you're saved. Don't doubt your salvation. Never doubt your salvation. Because we're worried that their self-esteem would be hurt.

But I'm thankful for the preachers that I heard when I was growing up. I remember multiple times when I was sitting in a pew and I heard a preacher say, repent of your sins. Turn to Christ. And I had a weight of conviction coming over me.

And nobody patted me on the shoulder and says, oh no, no, you're fine, don't worry about that.

No.

I felt a weight of conviction. I needed to come forward to an altar. And I don't know if any of you had a similar experience as me, but I came forward to pray to accept Christ.

Many times when I was young.

I raised my hand more than once because I wasn't sure. And the problem was some sins in my life kept coming back up. And I didn't know if I had genuinely repented. But ultimately, God gave me assurance of salvation.

That is a gift that God can give us. Romans chapter eight speaks of, he tells us, he gives us the testimony of his Holy Spirit, that you are a child of God. Here's what I'm trying to say there. Don't short circuit the process of God's conviction for our sins just to protect someone's self-esteem.

We're just gonna look at a couple verses. In fact, let me just mention them to you. You can look them up later. In 2 Corinthians 13, five, we're told, examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.

It doesn't say, assure one another that you are in the faith. It says, it tells you, look into your heart, examine yourself, are you in the faith? Do you believe the gospel? Have you repented of sin? Acts 20, verse 21, Paul talks about his ministry and he describes the gospel call as preaching repentance and faith.

Repentance towards God because of our sins and faith in Jesus Christ for the cleansing of sin. The question is, have you repented of the sins that were in your life or are you continuing on in the same sins that you were doing.

Before you came to know Christ?

Before you ran into that cornerstone, your life was full of sin, all of ours were, but what difference has it made when you came to that cornerstone?

Have you repented?

Acts 20, 21.

First John, the entire book, takes up this subject as its thesis. Here's how you know that you've been born again. Chapter five says you believe in his one and only son, but there's some other tests in there.

You love the brothers, you love people. There's a newfound love in your heart for people.

That maybe wasn't there before.

And it's a growing love.

You're not getting harder and more callous and more hateful towards people, but you're more compassionate now towards people. The love of the brother is a test of salvation.

It's something that indicates.

That really you have been saved, but also that you've made a break from sin. Now, it doesn't say that you never sin any longer. In fact, First John chapter one says if anybody says that they don't sin, they're a liar.

You are a sinner still and you still will sin, but it talks about making a practice of sin, that you embrace it and that you hold on to those sins, you justify those sins, and you refuse to turn away.

Are you making a practice of sin,.

Or do you love the darkness,.

Or have you come into the light? First John gives us these tests. And I'll close with Colossians one. Please do turn with me to that one. Close the first line. Colossians one, verse 21 and 22. Colossians, verses 15 to 20, exalts Christ to the highest place.

Perhaps in all of the scripture, that section, that little pericope, exalts Christ as the creator of all things. All things were made through him and for him. He's the image of the invisible God. And all things, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, they're all created through him and for him.

And Christ is the head of the body, and the fullness of God dwells in him. It lifts up Christ to the highest place. But look at verse 21. And you, living stone, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.

There's something you once were, and there's something that is now. Verse 21, you once were alienated.

That means a stranger.

You weren't familiar with Christ. You didn't know him. You were a stranger to him. And you were hostile in your mind toward him. You were hostile towards the word of God. You did not accept the authority of the word of God.

Your mind was hostile towards God. Doing evil deeds.

Now you might not have called them evil.

Maybe you called them normal. But your deeds were contrary to the revealed word of God,.

His standard of morality. Describes me.

He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. So something that you once were has been converted to something that you now are.

There's a change that's happened.

Conversion is a change. It's a radical change. Everything changes when you get to know the one who is above every name. The one who created everything and for whom the whole world exists. When you know Christ, there is a change.

And my question is, have you come to that point?

That's the first place.

Have you been converted? It's as simple as this if you haven't. You repent of your sins, you believe in Christ. You turn away from your sin, you no longer embrace your sin, and you turn to Christ to embrace him.

Have you been converted?

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

Turn to Christ, turn away from your sin. No longer cling to those things. There's a second thing this morning. Consecration. Possible to be born again, and in that moment you've genuinely come to know Christ.

But over time you begin to grieve the Holy Spirit. Would you say as you sit here this morning that there was a time where I used to run a little harder than I do now? I know what it's like to be filled with the Spirit, but today I don't really feel like I am.

Have you been grieving the Spirit of the living God? Ephesians 4 .30, Ephesians 5 .18. We can grieve the Spirit of God, or we can be controlled by the Spirit of God. Even if you've been converted, there can be times when you begin to backslide away from your first love.

You begin to lose your first love for Jesus Christ. This morning, are you consecrated to him? What does that word consecration mean?

It means to.

Set yourself upon an altar to be offered up as a sacrifice. We're familiar with Roman Catholicism, right? How there will be a priest who will consecrate bread and wine to make it holy, to put it on an altar as they believe, to make it holy, and then as people take that, it has this cleansing effect on the person who takes it.

But Romans 12, verse one, turn there with me, says it's not the priest's job to make bread and wine holy, which in turn works its grace in you to make you holy.

It doesn't say that in the Scriptures.

It says,.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies.

As a living sacrifice,.

Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. You see, we come to church, and we go to a church building, but what's more important than that outward stuff, people can go to church all day long, and they can go take the Eucharist at the Catholic Church, and they can take communion here the first Sunday of the month, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything.

It won't confer grace in and of itself. Even our communion, which I believe is a legitimate understanding of what Jesus taught, it doesn't do it itself. Consecrate yourself to God.

You be the sacrifice.

What does that mean? That means let go of those sinful patterns and habits in your life.

Kill them.

Paul says, 1 Corinthians 15, 31, I die daily. Those ambitions, those desires for your life, whatever they are, if they're built on your own self-esteem, your own pride, your own ambition, take them to the altar and die to them.

When you wake up in the morning, you die daily,.

And you say, this life that I have to live today, the time that I have to spend, my waking hours, whether it's 16 or 18, or for some of you, 20, I don't know. Others, 10, depends how much you sleep. Every hour that you have needs to be on that altar.

And it does include going to work. It does include taking care of your family and paying bills and the ordinary stuff of life. But it's surrender to God to do it as he sees fit. Consecration means dying to yourself.

To live for God.

Let's see that again in Colossians 1, because after conversion, he goes on to consecration. So Colossians chapter one, we left off at verse 22.

Halfway through, you were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.

He is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. There's a hena clause, and in order that, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach beforehand. Colossians 1 .22 doesn't just call you to be converted.

One experience, and then to be baptized, which demonstrates that this has happened on the inside. It's a daily call to come and die to yourself and to live for him. Consecration. C .S. Lewis was an atheist from 1911 until 1931.

But by hearing the gospel repeatedly and even studying the evidence, in 1931, he converted to become a Christian. And the rest of his life was consecrated to Christ. That's where the Chronicles of Narnia came from.

You've heard of that.

The screw tape letters, mere Christianity. He devoted his time and his life to serve the living God. He was already a professor at Oxford, a literary professor, and accomplished. But he lived the rest of his life for the kingdom of God.

He consecrated what time he had left,.

And he made a huge difference.

Another example of consecration, this one, just to me, is so powerful.

Hudson Taylor chose to leave England,.

Before missions was really even known to China. There's only about 12 Chinese missionaries to China in the time when he left, I think it was 1853. But he chose to leave England and his family behind and sail six months around to China to devote the rest of his life to reaching Chinese people.

He says,.

China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women. The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, and souls first and foremost in everything and at every time.

Even life itself must be secondary. Hudson Taylor left to go to China to preach the gospel. That's a man who had climbed up on the altar. Here, take me, Buddha. And the thing that, as I was reading some of his biography, the thing that caught my attention was actually his mother.

Because the two of them were together just before he got on the ship. And Hudson Taylor later tells about what that was like. Both of them put on a brave face. They prayed together and they sang hymns together, and then they had to part.

But Hudson Taylor talks about looking back on that time.

He says,.

Nor how she went with me into the cabin that was to be my home for nearly six long months. With a mother's loving hand, she smoothed the little bed. She sat by my side and joined in the last hymn, we should sing together before parting.

We knelt down and she prayed. The last mother's prayer, I was to hear it before leaving for China. Then notice was given that we must separate. We had to say goodbye, never expecting to meet on earth again.

Think about that. That sacrifice of the mother as well as the son for the sake of Christ and his kingdom to part ways. And Hudson Taylor kept reminding her, hey, don't think about what we're leaving. Think about our reunion in heaven.

For my sake, she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted and she went ashore, giving me her blessing. I stood alone on the deck, and she followed the ship as we moved toward the dock gates.

As we passed through the gates and the separation really commenced, never shall I forget the cry of anguish.

Rung from that mother's heart.

It went through me like a knife.

I never knew so fully until then what God so loved the world meant. And I'm quite sure my precious mother learned more of the love of God for the parishion in that one hour than in all her life. Saying goodbye to her son, never expecting to see him again.

Now, missions is a little different nowadays. We have communications and we have furloughs. We can get back together.

I was a missionary to the inner city.

I remember when I made that decision, I thought I was going to Turkey, and my dad had a similar experience, where he wept because we were saying goodbye, and at that time, there was a chance that I could have been martyred or something like that.

But in those moments of pain,.

Of a missionary saying goodbye to his mother, there is a picture of the love of God in the sending of his son to die for sinners that calls all of us to the altar. Go to the altar daily. Don't hold on to your life, but give it.

Give it to Christ. Now, not many of us here will be called to be missionaries, some are. But every one of us is called to die daily. Die to what you would have devoted your time to had it not been for Christ.

I have to discipline myself not to watch too much basketball instead to write, because I know that God could use my writing more than he could use my watching. What do you need to die to in the evenings,.

In the mornings?

Consecrate your life to Christ. There is a reunion coming.

This ends happily, doesn't it?

So why live this life for yourself and get to the other side and have eternity together, regretting what could have been with your life? Don't waste your life. Consecrate it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you've done that before.

When you first repented, when you first believed, your life was devoted to him, but over the years, your love is growing cold. Today's the day to consecrate your life anew. And finally, consistency. Remain stable and steadfast.

We're in Colossians 1.

We left off at verse 22. Paul says, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

We are blessed in this church. We have a number of people in this church who have been oxen for many years. They've been converted and consecrated, and they've been grinding in ministry for decade after decade now.

Proverbs 14 .4 says, where there are no oxen, the manger is empty. But from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest. A church is built on converted people and consecrated people, but there's plenty of people.

Who you'll meet over the years.

There'll be a flash in the pan. They will come, and they'll get excited for a while, and you'll see them go strong. But the ox is the one who grinds in day after day, and the abundant harvest will come from that.

We need consistent people who day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade, they are stable and steadfast in the faith.

They remain consistent.

I'll mention one area where consistency is very important, and that is what the scriptures call the curia haemena, the Lord's Day. The day of the Lord, Revelation 1 .10. Paul, I'm sorry, John, when he was exiled to Patmos, he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, the day devoted to the Lord.

In 1 Corinthians 16 .2, we're told on the first day of the week, set aside an offering, so that when Paul comes, he won't have to collect anything. So that's where our Sunday morning offerings come from.

Listen, from the earliest days of Christianity, Christians have set aside the first day of the week to be the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day, it belongs to him. In Hebrews 10, we're told, do not neglect the assembling together of the saints, which is the habit of some.

Consistency means that you come to worship the king on the Lord's Day, every Lord's Day. You guys know the story of Eric Liddell, Eric Liddell, I don't know how to pronounce his name, but he was to run in the Olympics in the 1920s, but refused to run his race because it was on the Lord's Day.