The Dearest Place on Earth - Brandon Scalf

The Church as God’s Plan A and the Dearest Place on Earth

Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist forefather of ours, once said that despite the church's imperfections, that it was in fact the dearest place on earth. And the reason that he said this was because he believed, much like the Apostle Paul, that the church is not just something that exists on the periphery of life, but it is plan A for the redemption and the sanctification of God's people.

The church is what the entire book of Ephesians is about. And I know it's taken us a while to get to that reality, but Paul is trying to argue that the church has to be made up of people who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ.

And of course, we have seen throughout this book that there is many obstacles to that reality. We need the church. We must love the church. But in order for the church to exist and to move forward in the world, dead sinners have to be made alive, and people who are alienated from one another, both ethnically and geographically, must be united and reconciled to one another.

And they're not reconciled and united in their ethnicity or their religious practice, but in Jesus Christ himself. But friends, the church is of utmost importance in Paul's argumentation. It is the reason that he has talked about what Christ has done for the sinner in eternity past, what the Father has done and what the Spirit has done and how he has stepped in the way to overcome these obstacles, utilizing his divine power.

And though the church has not been explicitly mentioned except for once in chapter one, at the end in verse 21, it is now being talked about in verses 19 through 22. Tucked in these lines of scripture are three great biblical images or metaphors for the church and how it is to function.

There are three life-altering metaphors here that we must pay attention to. They are the implications of having been saved. And so if we to understand what the church is, we need to understand what these metaphors are.

The first metaphor is that we are fellow citizens of God's heavenly kingdom. We can see that as we look at our passage in verse 19, as well as family members of God's household and then continuing on, stones in God's holy sanctuary.

And in order for us to understand that, we have to look back and lean forward. Paul here is essentially summing up what he's already talked about and then he's going to give us a glimpse as to where he's going.

And so let's see what it is that he has to say. Would you please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy and fallible and all sufficient word. And as I said, when we began our time, we will look specifically at verses 19 through 22, but so that we can be caught up in Paul's flow of argumentation.

Let me begin in verse 11 of chapter two. This is the word of God. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in his flesh, the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances.

So that in himself, he might create the two into one new man making peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in himself put to death enmity. And he that is Jesus came and preached the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

For through him, we both have our access and one spirit to the father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone and whom the whole building being joined together is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord and whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever, amen. Amen, go ahead and have a seat. Our verse begins, or our passage rather, begins in verse 19 when Paul essentially begins to sum up everything that he has just said.

He begins by saying, so then, or you could say because. And what he's getting at is because of these spiritual realities that I have just talked about, namely that God has, according to chapter two, verse one, caused the dead in spiritual realities to be born again because he has enabled them to not walk according to the world, not according to the devil and not according to their own fleshly desires.

And because he has made them one new man with the people who were far away, namely the Jewish people, these things are true. And remember, Paul is speaking to a Gentile audience. If you are new here or you haven't been following along with us, that just means anybody who is not born a Jew, not born one of God's chosen people at the time of the Old Testament.

And it's because God has done all of this that we can be assured of the realities that he has just told us about, namely that we are no longer strangers and we are no longer sojourners. Paul finds it incredibly important here to discuss the reality yet again that we who were far off from God's covenant people, we're far off from the covenants of promise, we're far off and without God in the world have now been brought near.

We just read it in verse 11 and following that as part of this problem, this obstacle, we were alienated from Israel. We were strangers to everything that was about them. We didn't have access to God and we were wandering without God in the world.

So he begins by asserting on the front end here that we are no longer something that we once were. We were without hope, but now we have hope. No, but not only is he speaking in terms of negation, he's going to give us three positive metaphors as I said at the beginning of our sermon.

He's going to say that we are essentially the church, but he does so firstly by showing us this, that those who are now in Christ are fellow citizens of God's heavenly kingdom. That is a new kingdom with a new king with new covenant stipulations and that changes everything.

But you are, verse 19, fellow citizens with the saints. What Paul wants his readers to understand and you to understand by extension is that you are caught up now, as it were, not just into salvation, but a kingdom that is much bigger than your own thought process desires.

Thought process and way of doing things. You are brought into a kingdom with other people in it that looks like the kingdom of Israel, but it's not the kingdom of Israel. And so when we look back at the Old Testament, when Paul is looking at the people of Israel, he's looking at a type and a shadow of things to come.

It typifies the reality that New Testament believers are thrust into. This is why, for instance, Paul says elsewhere in Colossians chapter one, verse 13, that Jesus rescued us, those who believe in him and have faith in him, from the authority of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the son of his love.

New Testament believers, those who have trusted in Christ, those who have been resurrected spiritually from spiritual death, have been brought into the kingdom of God's beloved son, where he reigns as king.

Children, would you look at me for just a second? Did you know if you love Jesus, if you have bowed your knee to him in submission, you are not just saved, but you are in a kingdom surrounded by other people of the past, the present, and the future, and we'll get to that in a minute, that all make much of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's your job as kingdom ambassadors, that is someone who carries the king's message, to help push back darkness in the world and to show forth the beauties and glories of your king. You're gonna tell the world about this king and function in his kingdom.

And this is true of all of us. We have been thrust into, and I will say, a heavenly kingdom. Remember, we have, if we're following the argumentation, we have been crucified with Christ, right? His power is aimed at us, and that power rose Jesus Christ from the dead.

When we place our faith in him, we are caught up with him, as it were, to heaven, we are resurrected with him to a newness of life, and we now sit and rule and reign with him on the heavenly throne in him.

And here, Paul is trying to get us to understand, that means that we're in a kingdom underneath a new king with who? The saints. That is, everyone who has been taken from death to life, everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus, who do not boast in their works, but boast in him and his salvation.

And this, of course, is saints existing in the past, the present, and the future. This kingdom is bigger than Heritage Church. This kingdom is bigger than the state of Oklahoma. This kingdom is bigger than the United States.

This kingdom is bigger than the world, because this kingdom originates in heaven. And we know this because Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew chapter six, and in that prayer, he says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So Jesus' kingdom is where Jesus reigns. And of course, Jesus reigns over all of the world, so in one sense, the world is his kingdom, but Jesus sits on the throne and, what? Rules the minds and the hearts of his people as they push back darkness in the world and as they walk alongside one another, carrying God's message.

Now, when Paul wrote these words, the kingdom of Rome was at the height of its territorial expansion and glory.

It was huge.

Rome dominated the world and Roman armies kept peace and dispensed justice, so to speak. Roman roads linked the far-flung reaches of the empire and Rome had stood for hundreds of years and was thought to be able to stand for thousands of years more.

When people look at Rome, they saw a kingdom that could not be shaken. And so Paul, by saying, if you've been saved, if you love the Lord Jesus, you've been thrust into a kingdom with a king with all of the saints that exist bigger than your little spot here in Ephesus.

They would have been like, what? Like Rome? No, bigger and better than Rome. A kingdom that was destined to grow and permeate all the nations and drawing all peoples from all groups. And it was the one, it was the kingdom.

That could not be destroyed.

Friends, the truth of the scripture is that we have a king and we are in a kingdom that though it started out in the first century as a little mustard seed, will grow to be one of the largest trees in the garden.

It is a kingdom that is bigger than Heritage Church. It is a kingdom with all of the saints that have been saved throughout history and it is a kingdom that will continue to grow as God gathers His people.

You might be asking, well, that's great. As a church, we function in this kingdom, but how can I be a good kingdom citizen, right? Because if you are going to be a kingdom citizen, if you're going to be in a kingdom, you must be a good kingdom citizen.

Well, serving the kingdom firstly means serving the church because the church and the kingdom are somewhat synonymous as though they differ in nature in some ways, but that's not Paul's point here. Paul's point is that the church and those who in it are thrust in to kingdom work because they are a new kingdom people, fellow citizens with the saints.

This means actively participating in building God's kingdom by investing in the relationships that exist in this church. God grows His kingdom by growing people together and as they move forward in the world.

It means contributing your time and your resources to support ministry initiatives. And that's just a fancy way to say, use your time, talents, and treasures to make sure that Jesus' name and fame can exist in this world.

Serve where you can serve, love where you can love, help where you can love, and make sure that you pray for the needs of others as you meet them. Look for ways to mentor and disciple fellow believers, making sure that you spur them on to good works, right?

Because a kingdom, if you think about it, is like an army and an army must bear one another's burdens. They must look after one another. There is no army worth having where soldiers are not looking out for one another.

If everybody only looked out for themselves, everyone would be dead. The church is so beautiful because we're thrust into a kingdom and we're thrust into having fellow kingdom workers and those kingdom workers are there to work alongside you, to labor and to love and to make much of Jesus.

What a beautiful reality Paul is pointing to. But Paul doesn't just point to the reality that there are some people that work alongside us, which is the second thing that he begins to expand upon. He's building a case here.

You're no longer something that you once were. You are no longer strangers and sojourners. You are no longer alienated from God, but you are in his kingdom firstly, and secondarily, you are in his family.

So my second point here, this second metaphor that we are looking at is we are family members of God's household. He continues on, and are of God's household. Very plain, right there in the text. And this begins to unlock, as he's working towards his climax, a more intimate way of understanding the church, right?

Because as you're walking along other soldiers, there may not be a lot of intimacy, though there might be a lot of co-laboring. But Paul says, no, it's bigger and better than that because you're actually thrust into God's family.

So when you are saved, when you are brought from death to life because of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and the application of that truth that you have come to know about Jesus Christ and the preaching of his word, and as you are brought into the kingdom, you are also brought into a family, a family with a house.

In other words, when people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are coming home. They're coming home, right? Who needs a home? Those who are strangers and sojourners, those who are wandering, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, those who need a family.

And the church is God's family, made up of sons and daughters who have been redeemed by the blood of his Son. This is why in verse 16 of chapter two, it says that we have been reconciled in one body to God through the cross.

And in chapter one of verse seven, we are reminded of the second member of the Trinity and the work that he did in redemption, that it was through his blood that we have been forgiven. In the reconciling of work, in the reconciling work of Christ on the cross, we are brought into a family that is more family-like than even the familial bonds that we have with our own children or our aunts and our uncles or our moms and our dads, one that is not tethered to biological blood,.

But Christ's blood.

And that binds us far more than any other blood because it does away with all of our alienation and all of our sin. So who is in this family? Well, we get into this family by being born again. That is being born of God or having been birthed from above.

If you are to be in God's family, then you would have to have the Holy Spirit.

Regenerating your heart.

Now, this isn't a very popular doctrine, though it is one that we have most certainly discussed before, but it's not popular because what it tells us is that we can't actually make our own decisions because we're too sinful to do so.

In chapter two of verse one, and I've already mentioned before, but let's look at it more in depth. It says, and you were dead in your transgressions and sins. What does it mean that we were dead in our transgressions and sins?

Well, it means, according to the Greek, that you were dead in your transgressions and sins. There's no trick here. There's nothing underneath this. It means that we are unable to respond to spiritual stimuli.

We are not alive, and we need to be made alive. And how do we do that? Not by choosing to follow God. Because why? We're dead. And dead people don't choose. Dead people don't walk. Dead people don't breathe.

Dead people, as the King James says, stinketh. That's all they have. And so if God is going to get for himself kingdom people and family members, he has to, according to Ephesians chapter one,.

Predestine them to adoption.

And then cause them to be born again, to regenerate them, that is to awaken their dead hearts and to cause them to be red with blood for him. This is the promise of the new covenant, Jeremiah 31, 31 and following, is that God causes us to love him, obey him, because he loves us and wants to adopt us into his very family.

This is why Jesus, addressing Nicodemus in John chapter three says, I say to you, unless one is born again as a child of God, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So though this is second on Paul's list, it actually must happen prior to even seeing and being a part of the kingdom.

Because you can't see the kingdom.

Unless you are made a child of God by being spiritually birthed. And if that's confusing to you, that's okay. It's confusing to Nicodemus. Nicodemus says, how is that work? I can't just go back up into my mother's womb and be born again.

And what does Jesus say? Jesus says, you should know this. The spirit blows where he wishes and he does what he delights to do and he will do it. He says, unless one is born of water and of spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So whereas the Israelites were born into a kingdom and they were born into Israelite families, it was a fleshly, fleshly kingdom and a fleshly family, which was pointed out by their fleshly sign of circumcision.

But in the new covenant, we are born of water and of spirit. And we are regenerated and brought into a new kingdom with a new covenant head, a new king, and born into God's family. In John chapter one, John makes this irrefutably clear when he says, but as many as received him to them, speaking of Jesus and those were hearing his preaching, Jesus gave them the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

So Paul is saying here, yes, as part of the church, you are fellow citizens of the saints, you are in a heavenly kingdom that surpasses all geographical boundaries and is coming and thrusting itself onto this earth from heaven.

And you are of God's family and you have been born again to a living hope. And how does this happen? Well, Peter, where I just got that little last piece of what I was saying from helps us to understand how that happens.

And actually, Paul just told us how that happened last week. Namely, that Jesus Christ was preached and when he was preached, he was preaching to his people through the preaching of his word by the apostles.

This is why 1 Peter 1 .23 says for you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, that is through the living and enduring word of God. So how does God save a people and bring them to himself, thrust them into a kingdom and usher them into a family.

As it were?

The preached word, the proclaimed word, the cherished word. That's why verse 17, just prior to what we have talked about today, it says, and he came and preached the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

And what's beautiful about this reality is that we are immediately connected in Christ with everyone he has called brethren, which is those whom he has saved. Children, would you look at me here for just a second?

Not only are you brought into a kingdom when you believe in Jesus, but you are brought into a family, kind of like the family that you're already in, but with a heavenly father who is perfect in all ways and who loves you and is going to walk alongside you.

And just like your dad helps you, he's going to help you and he's never going to leave you and he's never gonna forsake you and he's never gonna have to say sorry because he's always right and he's always helpful.

But not only that, you actually get other brothers and sisters, much like the brothers and sisters that you have sitting next to you. If you believe in Jesus and you are in his family, all of these other people around you are your brothers and sisters as well.

That's pretty cool, isn't it? So when you become a Christian, your family expands and you have people that you get to love and walk with and you get to walk with them and love them because they are in your family because we have all been brought underneath our heavenly father who is God because of Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross.

Hebrews 2, 11 and 12 says, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers. This is why oftentimes you will hear me say that Jesus Christ is our elder brother.

He says, I will recount your name to my brothers in the midst of the assembly. I will sing your praise. Jesus being the son of God brings us into the family of God to be brothers and sisters with him.

So the love and affection that the father shows upon Jesus for his atoning work, he shows to you because you are in him. Now you're not Jesus, so don't hear what I'm not saying. And you're not equal with Jesus, but you are a part of God's family with Jesus Christ as your elder brother.

Being a member of God's household brings so many privileges with it. I mean, we could literally spend the next 40, 50, 60, 80 minutes talking about the privileges that rain down from being underneath God and his household.

And this would have been huge in the first century, right? Because of the Roman Empire and how all of that worked. Children got all of these blessings and inheritance and we get so much inheritance having been in Christ and being his brother and being sons and daughters of God.

But just to name a few, as it was already kind of stated to the children, we get a supportive network of spiritual brothers and sisters. Now this is why the heritage, in my estimation, is so beautiful.

Our body loves to love on one another. They love to take care of one another and they love to lean in when they see that a burden needs carried. That's the way a family should be. And that's the way a church family should be because we are all in the same family.

We get to share in the oversight of fellowship and prayers in the church. We have access to the sacraments and the preached word. And we are thrust into God's salvific plan for the world. But most importantly, above all of that, we have access.

To our father. See, in a kingdom, it's not so easy to go talk to the king. In a kingdom, you may not get to ever see or talk to a king, though he influences and causes edicts to fall that you must follow in order to be a citizen in this kingdom, but a father, you can run to.

This is why it's so important in verse 18 that Paul says that through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the father. We can come to this God in prayer at any moment of any day. Anytime we need him, we can come to him.

We can request his help. The author of Romans says that we can come to the throne of grace with confidence because of our elder brother Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he will bestow assurance upon us, he will receive us, he will answer us, and he will shower down mercy and blessing according to his good pleasure and will.

Do you guys feel that? The doctrine of God's adoption. It's so beautiful. The J .I. Packer once said, you wanna know what a person thinks about being a Christian or whether or not he is a Christian? Find out what he makes of being God's child.

You see, every other religion in the world is how do we get to God, please God, or become God? But in Christianity, God is a father and leans in and lovingly adopts us into his family by absorbing the cost of that adoption, namely the death of his dear son.

And because of that, we have unrestricted access to the comforter of comforters. And what this means practically, among other things, of course, is that we are in God's family. Now I know that seems like redundancy, but I want you to understand that what I'm trying to communicate is that in God's family, there are many different people.

So we have all access to God the Father, and we all are very diverse in nature. In a kingdom, there must be to some degree, some sort of marching orders, some sort of uniformity in order for that kingdom to function and to grow forth.

But in a family, we love on one another because of the way that God has loved us, despite our differences and idiosyncrasies. You and me and everyone else are very different. Now we value different things, though we should first and foremostly value what the scriptures tell us to value.

But we have different gifts, we have different talents, we have different ways of communicating, and we are all the more beautiful for it. I want you to think about this reality that in a family, you have this diversity, and yet unity, and we love in relationship to that.

It's kind of like an orchestra, right? When you go and sit down and you look at, or if you, and you listen to a symphony, as it were, you will notice that, for instance, the drum sounds much different than the clarinet.

Now the clarinet's beautiful in its own right, and the drums are awesome in their own right, but they are completely different. They serve different purposes, and individually, they're beautiful, but together, especially when you start adding the tuba, and you start adding the saxophone, beautiful, harmonious music begins to appear.

When I'm studying, I oftentimes will listen to movie soundtracks because they're so beautiful. And if a symphony or some sort of orchestral situation is really good, you can hardly tell what instruments are being played.

You just know that it all works together,.

And it sounds awesome.

That's kind of what the church is. That's what a family is. You have all of these different voices, and all of these different personalities, and different forms and functions, and yet they all work together to produce this beautiful music, and that's the way family is, and that's the way this church is, and that's the way the church should be.

And then once you begin to strip away all of that music, you realize that as beautiful as the drums and the clarinet are in this illustration, they're never what they could be by themselves, just like a family is never what it could be without family members.

A family without family members is just a person. So you might be asking yourself, well, I just feel like another face in the crowd. Maybe I'm not connecting with people in this church as I ought, or maybe I feel kind of isolated.

You're saying that I'm a part of this family. I'm very important.

I'm unique.

I'm one of these instruments in a symphony. I'm one of Jesus Christ's brothers or sisters, but I feel like I'm on my own. To that, I would say, one, believe the gospel, but more than that, get, not that you need more than that.

Don't hear what I'm not saying, but in addition to believing the gospel, get involved in a fellowship group. That's where family members fellowship with one another or join us when we go out to do evangelism, although that is very kingdom-like work.

Do your best to build close relationships with people who are in the family of God, especially here, but don't just stop here. Continue to reach out. There are other people from other churches who love Jesus who are your brothers and sisters in Christ as well.

Serve alongside them and share life experiences with them, and all of this can deepen your sense of connection to your true family within the church. Thirdly, Paul begins to tell us that not only are we in a kingdom because of what Christ has done, not only are we thrust into a family, but we are also stones in God's holy sanctuary, and this is, I believe, the climax of what Paul is attempting to say in all of chapters one and two.

And you might be thinking, well, a stone is kind of backpedaling, right? A kingdom, that was really cool. A family seems to be a step down, and a stone kind of seems to be even less than a kingdom and a family.

But actually, it's going up because intimacy is getting more robust. See, in an orchestra, you have different instruments, but they're still parsed out, as it were. They're still doing their own thing.

It's just contributing to the whole, but now, with a stone structure, they're all perfectly fitted together. So what Paul is trying to do is to help us understand that the church, in all of these ways, is first and foremost unified under the banner of Christ.

So let's look on.

He continues in verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being joined together is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you are being built together into a dwelling of God and the Spirit.

Now, we've gone from kingdom to God's household, now to a building, more specifically, to a holy sanctuary in the Lord. Now, some of your translations will say holy temple in the Lord, and that is true.

That is very correct. However, it's more specific than that. The reason that the Legacy Standard Bible chooses the word sanctuary here is because it wants us to understand that it's not just God's temple, that is this entire building structure, but it's the center of that structure where God dwells, or dwelt, rather, in the Old Testament temple.

Remember, we talked about this many weeks ago, about this wall of hostility that existed in the temple that separated the Jews and the Gentiles and the further into the temple you got, the closer you got to God, with the high priest being the only one to go into the Holy of Holies.

So what Paul is saying here is not just that we are being built up into a temple that used to exist and now exists in the New Testament church, but the very heart of that temple, where God dwells. That's what it says in verse 22 as well, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit, but we'll get to that more in depth and momentarily.

The thing that I want you to see here is that we are, in fact, if we are in Christ, if we have been saved by his blood, thrust into being stones of this holy sanctuary that is ever-growing and ever-expanding.

But just like any building, it must have a proper foundation and it must have a proper cornerstone. Let's take this one at a time. Verse 20 says that we are, of course, like a building having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and then, of course, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

What does it mean that we have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Now, I am going to move past this somewhat quickly, but I want you to know the reason that I'm doing that is because next week, we're going to have an entire sermon dedicated on what it means that, or rather, what biblical prophecy is and what has continued and what has not continued.

And I want to dedicate an entire sermon to that so we can understand what Paul is saying and what he is not saying, and in God's providence, he's given us and afforded us the time to really dig into that concept.

With that said, it is important at this juncture to understand what's being said and what's not being said so that we can understand the flow of argumentation. As I said just a second ago, if you're going to have a sturdy and well-built building, you have to have a proper foundation.

And the foundation that we, as the church, are being built upon is that of the apostles and the prophets. And Paul is making this argument because he wants to understand that unity is important and that we have to be unified and that we do have unity, but that unity, friends, does not exist because we just all desire to go along to get along.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

Christians do not have unity, do not possess unity, do not desire unity for the sake of unity itself. We have unity in Christ that is built on the foundation of the apostles. What I'm trying to get at is anytime we, as Christians, speak of unity within the church, we must be careful to determine what kind of unity we are actually talking about and what unity we are not talking about.

The thing that I want to put forth here is that the only unity that is worth having, the only true unity, is the unity built on the revealed truth of God centering in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

So when Paul is saying here that we are, as the church, this holy sanctuary being built up in the Lord, have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, what he's saying is it has been built on the witness of the apostles and prophets and the teaching that they have given us.

Christianity is not something that we all get to necessarily just come to on our own. It is a handed down faith. It is a stewardship. The apostles, inspired by God, wrote the scriptures along with the prophets.

And that is the truth that has been handed down to us. This is why the Bible in me theology is horrible. The Bible does not mean whatever you want it to mean. You can't just pull verses kicking and screaming out of context and apply your own hermeneutic.