Eph 2.19-22 Temple Schematics

[0:00] Please take up your copies of the Word of God and turn to the book of Ephesians. We're continuing in our series of Ephesians. We're at chapter 2.

[0:21] Now, in chapter 2 of the book of Ephesians, it deals with God's way of reconciliation in the covenant of grace. We see God making dead sinners alive in Christ. And this is done by what power?

[0:37] Is it by the power of man? Is it by the power of self? Is it by the power of will? By the power of faith? We see that this is by the power of God, so that you may know the exceeding greatness of God's power.

[0:53] And that is displayed in the resurrection and the exaltation of Christ. And you he made alive. So in chapter 2, what we see is a before and after picture of reconciliation.

[1:08] And a demolition has occurred. So the between section of the before and after picture, there has occurred a demolition. For the dividing wall has been broken down and a unified new creation temple constructed.

[1:25] So I'll read the second chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 2.

[1:38] Ephesians chapter 2.

[2:08] Ephesians chapter 3.

[2:38] Ephesians chapter 3.

[3:08] Ephesians chapter 3.

[3:38] Ephesians chapter 3.

[4:09] And through through him, through through him, through through him, we both have access by one spirit to the father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

[4:52] A great God, Lord, we thank you for your word that we have divine, supernatural revelation. Lord, as we seek to understand your word, we pray that indeed you would illuminate your word to us and give us spiritual understanding, an enlightened understanding of the truths contained in your word.

[5:13] And Lord, as I seek to bring your word to your people, Lord, you who are infinite, eternal, your spirit, your invisible. And Lord, though I am the one that stands here, I pray that I would not be seen, but that your glory and your majesty would be seen by faith and that you would be at work and nourish, edify, convict, encourage all the hearers.

[5:44] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, in our text, which is verses 19 to 22, what's going on in this text is that the advancement of Christ's kingdom is metaphorically illustrated by the building up of a house.

[6:05] As such, we'll take a look at three particular aspects within our text. One is the materials. Second is the foundation.

[6:16] And third is the construction. Now, in Scripture and throughout Scripture, we see temple sanctuary imagery throughout the Bible.

[6:31] Starting in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, we have a temple sanctuary and God dwelling in the midst with his people. Then we have the tabernacle, God dwelling in the midst of his people.

[6:44] And then we have the temple, God dwelling in the midst of his people. And now, as we see a progression here of an imagery of a temple sanctuary, we see that when Isaiah sees Christ, what does he say?

[7:02] He says, So, we have something throughout Scripture pointing to something bigger and something greater.

[7:16] And then, in the New Testament, we have the church, where this is a temple sanctuary imagery, no longer physical, but now spiritual. And then this all points, of course, towards the New Jerusalem or the City of God.

[7:31] Now, where we are with the Church Age and the New Jerusalem City of God, what we have is an already not yet type of situation.

[7:43] Already in the sense of Christ's Kingdom being inaugurated, not yet in the sense of the final consummation still awaiting. So, that already not yet temple sanctuary imagery of the church and the New Jerusalem and the City of God is the one in particular, that particular temple sanctuary that we're going to understand from this text.

[8:05] And as such, we will see the temple schematics of this temple sanctuary. So, first of all, the materials. Now, when you plan to frame a building, you need to acquire the materials.

[8:23] You don't just go out and stand in a field and expense the frame to just drop out of the sky and build itself. You acquire the materials, and when you acquire the materials, you have a particular purpose in which you get the materials for.

[8:38] You already have a design. So, for example, if you're going to frame a house, then you don't order a thousand gallons of water and a skid steer in order to build the frame. You plan out what it is you want to build, and then according to that design, you acquire the appropriate materials.

[8:58] Now, what we have here in our text is a planned purpose and design for purchased and reclaimed materials. I'll say that again.

[9:09] A planned purpose and design for purchased and reclaimed materials. Specifically, when we go back to chapter 1 in the book of Ephesians, what do we see?

[9:25] We see purposed by the Father, who is the architect and author of redemption. We see purchased by the Son, incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, who shed his blood to satisfy the demands of God's justice as a substitute, purchasing a people for his own possession.

[9:49] Purposed, purchased, and then claimed. Claimed by the Spirit in verses 10 to 14. So, in chapter 1, we see purposed by the Father, purchased by the Son, and claimed by the Spirit.

[10:08] A planned purpose and design for purchased and reclaimed materials. Now, in chapter 1, in this design, we see the covenant of redemption. And in chapter 2, we see the covenant of grace.

[10:21] So, this redeemed people, purchased for God's possession, are reconciled to God and to one another, and built up together into a spiritual house.

[10:34] From this reconciliation, in our text then, the implications are stated negatively, no longer, but now.

[10:48] So, no longer, but now, brings to the forefront a contrast. Particularly in verse 19. Now, where they were once excluded as aliens and strangers, so what was true of their former condition, is now excluded from their present condition.

[11:12] So, their being excluded, as aliens and strangers, is now, that condition is now excluded from their present condition. In other words, once far off, now brought near.

[11:26] No longer aliens and strangers, now fellow citizens. Now, some of you have possibly heard of the missionary Adoniram Judson.

[11:38] He was an American missionary in the early 1800s, who went to Burma. And in Burma, he was a resident foreigner.

[11:49] So, his status there was that he was a resident foreigner. And while he was there in 1824, the Anglo-Burmese War broke out. And as such, the British forces invaded Burma.

[12:03] Now, Adoniram was not Burmese. He was American. Therefore, he was English. In particular, he was a white English foreigner.

[12:15] Although he was a resident, he was a resident foreigner. And the Burmese, as the British forces invaded Burma, the Burmese concluded that foreigners must be spies.

[12:32] Adoniram Judson was a foreigner, so it was concluded by the Burmese that Adoniram Judson, amongst the other foreigners, must be a spy. Now, I won't go into detail.

[12:44] You'll have to read a biography, and truly you should. But, from the experience that followed, included a death prison, a death march, and a loathsome and wretched treatment.

[12:56] And he concluded, he concludes the torment he endured by saying, the scenes we witnessed and the sufferings we underwent during that period, I would feign consigned to oblivion.

[13:09] Adoniram Judson was a resident foreigner. He wasn't a citizen, so as a resident foreigner, he was not provided the protection, the privileges of a citizen.

[13:24] Now, Gentile believers, who were once foreigners and strangers, are not now resident foreigners, but citizens.

[13:36] They're citizens with the saints in the believing community, full members, no longer foreigners and strangers. In the Apostle Paul, you probably remember in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship and was afforded the protection of citizenship in Acts 22-25, and by his citizenship, he escaped whipping.

[14:06] So he was afforded the protection and privileges of being a citizen. All believers are fellow citizens with the saints of Christ's kingdom and escape eternal torment of the wrath of God.

[14:26] The Gentiles, the Ephesians, were once foreigners from the commonwealth and strangers from the covenants of promise. They were having no hope and without God in the world, dead in trespasses and sin, sons of disobedience, by nature children of wrath, but you he made alive, but God, by grace you have been saved, now brought near by the blood of Christ, reconciled to God in one body, now members of the same spiritual society with all the saints.

[15:05] The church as a holy, spiritual city, built up of regenerate believers as its citizens. No longer foreigners, no longer strangers, not resident foreigners, but as citizens.

[15:24] Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a savior. being united and unified as one body with access in one spirit to the Father through Christ.

[15:36] This access is in Trinitarian communion with God and access together as a unified new entity. Not just residents, not just citizens, but of belonging to a household, that is the children of God.

[15:54] Now, this unified entity, which is a community of believers, scripture calls two particular things.

[16:08] So this community of redeemed is called, first of all, a house in 1 Timothy 3.15, and second of all, a city, Psalm 112.3.

[16:21] The community of redeemed is called a house and a city. A foreigner and stranger is outside and estranged from the community of believers in communion with God.

[16:35] But, you are no longer strangers and aliens. That contrasts from the former condition to the present condition. They are now, all believers are now, constituent components that make up the city of the saints and the household of God.

[16:56] Jews and Gentiles together as a unified new creation as the plan and design of this structure. If you remember back from Genesis 9, the descendants of Japheth, Gentiles and nations, inhabiting with the descendants of Shem, the Israelites.

[17:17] Genesis 9, and Noah said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth and may he dwell in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his servant.

[17:30] So, you are either a citizen with the saints in the city of God, loving, worshipping and serving God to the praise of his glorious grace, or you are citizens of Babylon with the world, loving, worshipping and serving self for the glory of my majesty and therefore to the contempt of God.

[17:54] If you are a citizen, if citizen of Babylon at home in this world, you will not be afforded the privileges and protection of kingdom citizenship on the day of judgment.

[18:07] And where Adoniram's torment from not being a citizen was only temporary, that of those who are not citizens of Christ's kingdom, their torment is eternal, eternal torment from the wrath of God.

[18:22] But, if a citizen of Christ's kingdom and currently on your way to that heavenly city which is our home, you have been purchased by Christ by the shedding of his blood for the full payment of sin, declared right before God and brought to the Father by Christ who is our peace.

[18:43] So the purchased and reclaimed unified new creation is built upon a sure foundation. Next, the foundation.

[18:59] Our text says the household of God built upon the foundation. Now, this is a figure of speech. In particular, it is a metonymy.

[19:13] Now, in Robert Plummer's book, 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible, he defines a metonymy as being an expression in which one word or phrase stands in for another with which it is closely associated.

[19:30] An example would be as for me as for me in my house. It is not a reference to the walls and the roof, but to the people contained within it. Right? Now, the metonymy figure of speech in our text is a spiritual structure compared to a material building.

[19:54] Now, a material building has its foundation on solid earth, but a spiritual structure has its foundation in heaven. It is a celestial city, a holy city with its foundation in heaven.

[20:09] If you remember in Revelation 21, verse 2, it says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more, and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

[20:26] Now, back to the foundation. the household of God built upon the foundation. First, the primary foundation is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, the principal foundation.

[20:42] Isaiah 28 says, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation.

[21:00] A solid foundation that neither rains, nor floods, nor winds can destroy. Matthew 7, And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

[21:17] Next, from our text, we see the secondary foundation, specifically, doctrine. Primary foundation being Jesus Christ, secondary foundation being doctrine, that of the apostles and prophets, specifically, the apostolic preaching and inscripturation of the word by divine inspiration.

[21:36] In Acts 2, 40-42, after Pentecost, and with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

[21:47] Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.

[22:04] And in Revelation 21, verses 10 and 14, speaking of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

[22:30] Now, in our text, in Ephesians 2, foundation is singular. It is singular because of the unity of doctrine that the apostles and prophets held forth centering on Christ and proclaimed to all the world.

[22:49] Second, Christ is cornerstone. Cornerstone is where two walls are joined and united, bonding the structure together, uniting the several parts and supporting the structure by his strength.

[23:07] And any subsequent building up of the structure is tested to be of the architect's specification according to how true it is to the cornerstone, that is the stone of testing.

[23:22] If a church, we may or may not use air quotes for that reference to the church, if a church is built up according to how the nations behave around us, or according to consumer entertainment, or personal preference as opposed to by divine command, then what cornerstone is the building founded upon?

[23:46] third, Christ is the chief cornerstone. Christ is the chief cornerstone.

[23:58] The chief, the head, the principal thing, the structure depends on it. This spiritual structure depends on its head.

[24:09] Christ exalted with all dignity, honor, authority, and power. Christ, I'm sure you recall, is called a rock, and to build upon a rock is wise.

[24:24] This household of God is a unified entity properly oriented to the one cornerstone. Salvation is in no one else but this cornerstone, the church's one foundation.

[24:42] Jesus Christ is the church's sure foundation. Rejecting Christ, the chief cornerstone, means remaining in your sin and at enmity with God and under the condemnation and wrath of God.

[25:00] With such as a structure on a faulty, unstable foundation, it will surely fall and be destroyed. Matthew 7 says, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

[25:29] And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

[25:49] So upon Christ, the sure foundation, a building is constructed being fitly framed together. The construction.

[26:03] Our text says, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

[26:22] So, as we've already read, being built upon the foundation of Christ, in whom all the building grows. So in Christ, the chief cornerstone, all the building grows.

[26:35] that is being joined together or framed together. Well, how does this happen? By the conversion of men and their addition into the church, that is, the structure being built by the exceeding greatness of God's almighty power in us who believe, and you he made alive.

[26:57] Now, in Psalm 127, verse 1, it says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. God is the architect, purposed by the Father, as we read in Ephesians 1, 3, 6.

[27:14] Now, the rebuilding of the temple after Israel returned to Jerusalem after exile was, if you recall, rejoicing mixed with weeping.

[27:26] Why was that? Because it was not glorious. It was not the culmination of promised fulfillment. They were still waiting. They were still, in essence, in exile, though the foundation of the temple was laid.

[27:41] It was not the perfect, final, and heavenly foundation. Now, keep in the back of your mind, Haggai 2, verses 7 and 9, where it says, And I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.

[27:59] The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.

[28:11] Now, when the Israelites returned from exile and were rebuilding the foundation of the temple, was it more glorious? No. So it was not the fulfillment of what we see here.

[28:24] So it's still waiting, still waiting for that perfect temple, the perfect foundation. Now, in John 2, 19-21, Jesus said that he will raise up or build up the temple in three days.

[28:45] This was not the material, earthly temple. Jesus was referring not to the material temple, but to himself. Jesus was referring to himself.

[28:59] The Jerusalem temple was a type of Christ and appointed to Christ and his kingdom. The Old Testament temple was a dwelling place of God with his people, and he revealed his will to them.

[29:16] the Holy of Holies was a type of heaven. The Old Testament temple was a type of the church and the spiritual realities of being joined to Christ and built upon the doctrine of the apostles and the prophets, centering on Christ, and is built up with regenerate believers believing and receiving Christ and his word.

[29:41] the temple being a type of the church in Christ means that true churches are now the place of God's tabernacling presence with his people and the place of God's worship by his people.

[29:59] Now, remembering again, John 2, 19, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

[30:12] So if he was not referring to the material earthly temple, and again, what was he referring to? To Jesus himself. But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

[30:26] When, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

[30:38] So ask yourself then, what is significant about this? What is the significance of this? Well, Hebrews tells us in chapter 9, verse 23 and 24, thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

[31:03] For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

[31:21] So what is the significance? You creation believers are like living stones being built into a spiritual house, a habitation of God, the household of God, joined to Christ by faith and united to each other.

[31:41] I'm sure you've heard of Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon, a pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, put out a magazine publication called The Sword of the Travel, and it was on matters of orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

[31:58] Orthodoxy being that which is to be believed, orthopraxy being that which is to be practiced. So this publication is called The Sword and the Trowel, and it was on matters of orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

[32:10] Why was it called The Sword and the Trowel? Now, when you think back to Nehemiah 4, 16-18, it says, and the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall.

[32:21] Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand, and held his weapon with the other, and each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built.

[32:36] It was a reference then to the building up the wall of the temple, the sword in one hand, the building tool, and the other. And in the publication of The Sword and the Trowel, their first publication, they listed their aims and intentions.

[32:55] This was in January of 1865, the first edition. They said, we would ply the trowel with untiring hand for the building up of Jerusalem's dilapidated walls, and wield the sword with vigor and valor against the enemies of the truth.

[33:14] Fourthly, a habitation or dwelling place of God. God dwells in the redeemed by his spirit, being predestined by the father, purchased by the son, claimed by the spirit, a purchased possession, indwelt by the spirit of God.

[33:33] Ephesians 1, 3-14. Furthermore, when such believers are joined together, so each believer is indwelt by the spirit of God, and when those believers collectively come together, and such believers are joined together, they each become a stone of a temple.

[33:54] And a temple is the particular dwelling place of God with his people. Next, where God dwells by his spirit.

[34:08] Now, God dwelling is by his spirit, not physically. We don't have the physical presence, bodily form of God, but by his spirit. Now, this spiritual dwelling is built into a temple by the spirit of God, working faith and love into the constituent components who are united and joined to Christ, the cornerstone, and built upon the doctrine of the apostles and the prophets, being centered on Christ.

[34:37] And the spiritual habitation is where God dwells, is also referred to as a house. And it is here where Christ is in our midst, standing before the Father, saying, here am I, and those whom you have given me.

[34:53] And with Christ, we cry out, Abba, Father. No longer foreigners, no longer strangers, but as a family, gathered together in the household of God, the Father, who is the wellspring and fountainhead of eternal, unchanging love.

[35:11] Now, dispensationalists' method of interpretation seeks to re-erect that which is Christ-fulfilled and abolished.

[35:25] The dispensationalist seeks to re-establish an earthly, material, geopolitical, mosaic system temple. And this is tragic because it misses the spiritual reality of a unified, new creation community of saints as constituent components of a holy temple being built on the foundation of the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, but the principal foundation of Christ as the chief cornerstone and God dwelling in their midst.

[35:55] So to put it another way, it's tragic because it misses the point of the realities of the promises, of the prophecies being fulfilled now in the church in Christ.

[36:07] In conclusion, Benjamin Keech wrote, this informs us of the great wisdom and condescension of God and contriving such a blessed foundation for the church and all true believers to build upon.

[36:22] It was the purpose of God to found his temple upon a sure basis, even the rock Jesus Christ. Jesus said that he will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

[36:37] Matthew 16 and 18. This is comfort for believers. Even in the worst of times, such a sure foundation built upon the rock of ages can never be thwarted, can never be overthrown, can never be shaken, nor can it ever be destroyed.

[36:57] Those who are justified will surely be glorified. Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The church militant, built upon a sure foundation, will be the church triumphant.

[37:19] Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore, till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

[37:35] When the world and the forces of darkness and the city of Babylon seem to be thwarting the advancement of the kingdom of God, the church's eternal architect, by the exceeding greatness of his almighty power, is accomplishing his eternal purposes, decreed before the foundation of the world, and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

[37:59] Remember in Revelation 21, verse 10, and Revelation 22, 1-4. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

[38:16] Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

[38:33] The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

[38:45] They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

[39:02] A foundation bears the weight of the structure. Christ bore the weight of covenantal obedience. Christ bore the weight of our sin on the cross.

[39:15] Christ, as mediator between God and man, bears, supports, and upholds the church to God as its only strength and support.

[39:26] Do you stand alone, or do you stand firm on the rock of ages by embracing Jesus Christ, receiving and resting upon him alone?

[39:38] Our great God, Lord, we praise you that you being eternal and omniscient and omnipotent, that you have decreed all things before the foundation of the world, and that you are accomplishing your purposes according to your design, according to your plan.

[39:55] Lord, we praise you that nothing within your creation can thwart your purpose. Nothing in this earth, in this world, whether it be earthly authorities or forces of darkness.

[40:08] Nothing can overthrow your purposes, but you are building your church, and even the very forces of hell cannot prevail against it. Lord, we pray that you would be at work building your church here locally.

[40:22] We pray that if it be your will, that indeed you would establish here a community of believers whom you have made alive, being united together in Christ, being reconciled to God and to one another, on the foundation, on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ, and being built up into a holy temple, that we might meet with you, you would dwell in our presence, we would worship you.

[40:54] Lord, we pray that you would be at work. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, as we work through