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0:41And this message is actually part 5 of a series I've entitled United with Christ. So if you've been with us over the last several years, we've been working through the book of Ephesians, and so I'm going to pick up where we left off. And as we come to our text this morning, I do want to remind you of the context that we have been in in the last few times together here in the book of Ephesians.

1:10You may recall that verses 11 through 22 of chapter 2 is actually one long sentence in the Greek. One long sentence, one complete unit of thought. And it emphasizes the significance of being united in Christ. Christ. That is the theme of verses 11 through 22, being united in Christ. And in verses 11, 13, through 13, Paul reminds us specifically of our need as Gentiles to be united with Jesus Christ. And he tells us that as Gentiles, we were actually despised by God's people. We were separated from Christ. We were excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel. We were strangers to the covenants of promise. We had no hope. And we were existing in the world without a God, without the God.

2:14In other words, as Gentiles, we were disconnected from God and from his people. That was verses 11 through 13. And then in verses 14 through 18, we see Paul describing for us what made union with God and his people possible. If we were disconnected, how in the world could we then be united with him? And he says that it was through the work of Christ on the cross. It was there where it is here where we see Christ's death tearing down all the barriers that separated God, God's people, and removing the hostility that existed between us, between us and between God. And it was. It was through his death that peace was established, and the church was formed, and God's people were united to each other and to God through Christ's death on the cross. We were reconciled. These are all familiar terms in those verses. And so Christ's death made that union possible. He made it possible. But Paul doesn't stop there. He doesn't stop at the mere possibility of being united with God. He goes on to describe the reality of that union for those who are in Christ. And that's what we see in the final verses of this section in verses 19 through 22. So again, just trying to reorient your minds around this passage. And in verse 19, you'll notice that the word so then, it begins with the word sow then. And this indicates that Paul is reaching his conclusion of his discussion on the union of Christ. He's reaching a logical conclusion. And he does this by giving us three illustrations, three pictures, if you will, that describe the church and specifically the union that has been formed in the church because of Christ. Now, last time we talked about the first two illustrations. You may remember these. The first illustration that Paul gives is that of citizenship. Citizenship. If you are in Christ, you are to think of yourselves as citizens in God's kingdom. Citizens in God's kingdom, citizens that have been united around a common allegiance, a common pledge to Jesus Christ as the one and only king of their lives.

4:54And so we see that. We see that you are citizens in God's kingdom. A second illustration that we looked at last time was that of a family. If you are in Christ, you are to think of yourselves as children in God's family. That is who we are in Christ. We are to relate to God as our heavenly Father. We are to relate to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Again, if you are in Christ, you have been born from above and adopted into God's family. You've been adopted as children in God's family. Well, with our time this morning, I want to look at the third illustration that Paul gives here in this text that describes the union in the church. Let me read the text for us this morning, and then we'll just walk through it together.

5:53Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 19. It says, So then, you are no longer. Strangers and aliens, 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, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. So, again, if you are in Christ, then you are not only citizens in God's kingdom and children in God's family, but you are also choice stones in God's temple. Choice stones in God's temple. And you should be able to see, I think, this illustration rather easily in the text that we just read, specifically in verses 20 and 22 through 22. First, notice just all the related terms that are used in these few verses: terms like having been built, foundation, cornerstone, a whole building, being fitted together, growing, a holy temple, being built together, a dwelling of God. You see all those terms here. And these are all terms that are related to the building of a structure, a structure. And contextually, these are being used as a metaphor to describe the building. Of God's unified church.

7:34The building of a group of people that have been united to God and united to each other through the person of Jesus Christ. And so that's what I want us to see this morning, and I want us to see the essential components of a unified church so that we would be one. So that Emmanuel Baptist Church would be the unified church that God intends for us to be. And that's what we will look at together this morning. First, we need to see that the unified church has a foundation. I want you to see the foundation of a unified church in verse 20. As you can imagine, every building has to have a solid foundation or it will eventually collapse. It just simply will not last. And this is also true of the church. And Paul points this out by describing this for us. Notice what Paul says makes up the foundation of the church. In verse 20, he says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

8:49Now, let's take these in order. He mentions the apostles and the prophets. Who are they? And how do they come about? Well, in the most General sense, an apostle is a messenger. An apostle is a delegate that has been sent out on behalf of another. That's what the word apostle literally means. It's one who has been sent out by another. And I think, as those of us who are familiar with the New Testament, we would be familiar with the 12 apostles, right? Those men that were identified in the Gospels, and we are told how these men were handpicked by Christ himself. They were chosen by Christ, and they were given unique ability, unique power and authority over sicknesses, and they were able to heal people and cast out demons and work miracles, all for the purpose of authenticating the message that Christ had sent them out to proclaim.

9:55These were recorded for us in the Gospels. And so they went out and they proclaimed the message that Christ had given them. And then, of course, we come to the book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, as it is titled. And what do we find? We find at the very beginning the apostles gathered there in a room with many others, waiting for the coming of the Spirit that Christ had promised would come to help them and empower them to preach.

10:30And you may remember that there were 11 of them at this time. Judas had departed. He had abandoned the office of apostle. And so Peter stands up among the crowd. He says, Look, we've got to replace Judas. We need another apostle. And it can't just be anyone. It can't just be anyone to be an apostle. There were certain qualifications. And so Peter stands up and he says to the crowd, we need to find someone who has been a personal eyewitness to the resurrected Christ. That's what he tells them. They had to be among us, they had to witness the resurrected Christ, and then specifically had to be chosen by Christ, hand-selected, and sent out and commissioned by Christ himself. And if you remember that passage there in Acts chapter 1, they had two men that they put forth and they asked the Lord to pick one. And he picked Matthias, who was then added to the 11. So now we're back to 12.

11:37And then, as Acts developed a couple chapters later, you remember Paul, right? The apostle Paul. He was personally visited by the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus and uniquely commissioned by Christ himself to be an apostle, to be sent out with the gospel specifically to the Gentiles. This is why Paul identifies himself as an apostle in many of his letters, including the letter we're studying this morning in Ephesians. He identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, one who's been sent out to proclaim his message. Now, there were a few others, but these were the main ones that had been uniquely chosen by Christ. Again, as eyewitnesses of the resurrection, and they began to proclaim his gospel message.

12:32These were the apostles. Now, back in our text, he not only mentions apostles, but prophets. Prophets, apostles, and prophets. Who were the prophets? Well, what was a prophet? A prophet was literally one who speaks for another. That's what a prophet was. That was their role. They were a mouthpiece for someone else. And perhaps the best biblical definition of a prophet can be found in Deuteronomy 18. You may remember this passage where Moses is, or God is speaking to Moses and to the people of Israel, and he tells them, I'm going to raise up a prophet from among you like Moses. And I'm going to put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I commanded him. He shall speak the words that I put in his mouth. And so a prophet, therefore, is. Is one who speaks for God. That's what a prophet is. He speaks the words that God reveals to him, and he only speaks those words, not any other words, only the words that God gives him. That is a true prophet.

13:48And so, this, of course, begs the question: who are the prophets that Paul is referring to here in Ephesians chapter 2? Who are a part of the foundation of the church? And let me just tell you, there's a lot of discussion around that question in the commentaries, if you were to dig into those. But for the sake of the time this morning, let me just try and give you the three options. Really, there's either the Old Testament prophets, there are the New Testament prophets, or there are, it's both, right? It's all of them. And again, for the sake of time, I want to just give you the main reason why I believe Paul is referring to the New Testament prophets only here in this passage. See, Paul refers to the apostles and the prophets two other times in the letter to the Ephesians. And to me, these are the most convincing because these other occasions seem to be pointing to New Testament prophets. The first one is just a page or so over in chapter 4. You can turn there. Chapter 4, verses 8 through 11.

15:01I won't read all of it, but let me summarize it for you. Beginning in verse 8, Paul speaks of the ascension of Christ into heaven. He speaks of Christ ascending into heaven after his resurrection. And then it says that he gave gifts to men. He goes to heaven and then he gives gifts to men. And what were those gifts? Verse 11. He gave some as apostles and some as prophets and pastors and teachers, etc. Right? But apostles and prophets. Now notice the order. First, Christ ascended. Then he gave the gifts of apostles and prophets. And so this seems to indicate that the prophets being spoken of here are the ones given after the ascension of Christ, which in our case would be the New Testament of prophets. So that's the first one. The second, the other occasion where Paul mentions apostles and prophets together is back over in chapter 3, just a few verses after our text this morning. Chapter 3, verse 4.

16:14And in this particular passage, he's talking about the mystery that has been revealed. A mystery that has been revealed. And notice what he says in verse 4. He says, by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. Verse 5, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to who? To his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. So again, if we were to read on, we would see that this mystery that had been revealed was that Gentiles were included in the church. And this truth hadn't been revealed in past. generations. It hadn't been revealed to the Old Testament prophets, but to the holy apostles and prophets. Again, implying the New Testament prophets are in view here.

17:10So again, we have the apostles and the prophets, and these men were part of the foundation of the church, and specifically the truths of the gospel that had been revealed to them. That had become part of the foundation of the church that Paul is describing here. Now, keep in mind that the apostles and prophets were very important components, but they were not the most important component of the foundation. Notice where Paul places his emphasis regarding the foundation by looking at the remainder of verse 20. It says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, there's the emphasis, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

18:01The cornerstone, what is that? Well, let me just ask for a little grace from the architects and construction major, construction science majors in the room this morning. I did not go to school for that. I went to school to learn how to build financial plans for people, not buildings. Okay, but let me try and articulate at least my understanding of what a cornerstone is. In today's construction, we don't really use cornerstones, at least not how they used to be used. In fact, if you were here when we built this building, we did not use cornerstones in the foundation of this building. It was poured as one solid concrete slab. It was pretty cool to watch, but it was not individually placed stones. It was one solid pour. But in the ancient world, in their building practices, they would use cornerstones. They would use these big stones. And the cornerstone served as the first stone that was laid in the foundation of a building. And it was often a cause of celebration because this was the beginning of construction.

19:20This is what marked the beginning of the building. And this stone was the most important stone for a few reasons. Let me give them to you. It had to be able to support the weight of the structure that was placed on top of it. That was one of the purposes of the cornerstone, and it was called a cornerstone because it was put in the corner, as you can imagine, of two intersecting walls. And so these walls, these future walls, would rest on top of that cornerstone, and that stone would have to hold them up and support them and eventually tie the entire building together. Now, these cornerstones were very large stones. They're not like the little bricks that we put on the side of our houses today. Some of these stones weighed 50 tons or more. These are massive stones that would have been cut out of the ground and shaped into these rectangular blocks and then slid into place into the foundation. And so you'd have these stonemasons that would go and cut these stones and shape these stones. And if a stone was found to be defective, if there were cracks in it or not the perfect stone, it would be cast aside. It would be rejected as the cornerstone. And because if you put the wrong stone in the cornerstone, it would jeopardize the structural integrity of the entire building. So it was an important stone. It was also a stone that had to be perfectly square. Perfectly shaped and perfectly placed into position in the foundation. And again, this was incredibly important because the cornerstone was designed to maintain the building's alignment. So if the cornerstone was not put in the right place, everything else would come out of alignment. And you can begin to see the importance of this stone because every other stone was dependent upon it, took its measurements from it, they pulled lines from it so that everything would fit properly into the building of that structure.

21:43So again, the cornerstone had to be the perfect stone, and it was the first one laid. Now, the point that Paul is making here ought to be obvious to us. What is Paul saying? He's saying that Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone of the church. And he's picking up on a theme that has been running through Scripture. Themes that are picked up in places like Isaiah 28, 16, where God promises to lay a stone in Zion, a cornerstone. Or passages like Psalm 118, 22, where he talks about the stone that the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. And of course, through the New Testament, the Gospels, they pick up on this theme. And Paul is picking up on it here. And he's saying that Jesus Christ is that cornerstone. He is that first stone that was laid in the foundation of the church. And the church construction couldn't begin without it. He was that perfect cornerstone. There was absolutely no defects in the Lord Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life. He died a perfect death. And he proved that he was the perfect cornerstone by resurrecting from the grave. He overcame sin and he overcame death. And he became that perfect cornerstone.

23:17Friends, all the weight and the responsibility of the structure of the church rests upon Jesus Christ. He is that essential stone that supports it, and he binds it all together. So he's the cornerstone, and he forms the foundation. That's what Paul draws our mind to first. He describes for us that foundation of a unified church. And it can be seen in the apostles and the prophets and, of course, Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. Second, Paul moves from the foundation of the church to the formation of the church, how it's formed.

24:00How the walls of the structure are built. And this can be seen in verse 21, which begins with the word in whom. You can see that there, in whom. This is, of course, referring to Christ as the cornerstone. The formation of the entire church flows out of, it is connected to, and it is dependent upon the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. And it says, in whom, the whole building being fitted together. You see that phrase there, being fitted together? Now, that's an interesting word that I got to study this week, and it's only used here in this letter. And it's actually three words joined together in the Greek. Three words that are smushed together, and it's a word that's used to describe the formation process or the framing of a building in the ancient world. Very interesting term. You see, again, the buildings during this time were made out of stone. Limestone, you had marble, granite were oftentimes what they used. And as I've already mentioned, they had to be cut out of the ground. And so a lot of times these buildings would be built near a stone quarry. And so the stonemasons would go in there and they would take their hammer and their chisel and they begin to cut out stones from the ground and shape them and cut them into the exact Dimensions and sizes that were needed to construct the building.

25:37And again, they would have to be perfectly shaped for the construction process. And as I was studying this this week, I was reading about how they often implemented a special procedure that intricately connected the stones together. They stacked them in a particular way so that the stones would be connected to one another. So again, when these stones were stacked together in this particular pattern, you couldn't really remove them without jeopardizing the entire structure of the building. They formed this interlocking structure, and so you couldn't really separate them from one another. They were joined together, they were fitted together so tightly and so precisely that they became one unified structure. That's what this term is talking about.

26:37Now, of course, this is different from how we build buildings today. Again, if you have a brick home and you were to go remove one of the bricks from the side of your house, your house isn't going to fall down. It's not constructed in the same way. They're constructed with mortar and they're tied to the framing of the walls. But here in the ancient world, again, they were stacked together. They were fitted together in a way that made them dependent upon all the other stones around them.

27:11They became structurally important to the whole building. And again, this is the term that Paul uses here: being fitted together. Being fitted together. Now, let me also point out that this term is used in a passive way, meaning that someone else is performing this action. Someone else is doing the fitting of these stones into the church, into this structure. And who is it? Who is doing the fitting? Well, it's not us. It's not the people of the church.

27:47It's not the elders. It's not the apostles and the prophets. It's not them. It's Jesus Christ. He is the one who said that he would build his church. He is the one that's forming them into this unified structure. Christ is the one who is selecting the stones, cutting the stones, shaping the stones, fitting them together so that they cannot be separated. You see the analogy here, the metaphor, this rich picture that Paul is giving us of the church. Jesus Christ is the one who designed it this way. He is the one who is that foundational corner. Stone that supports the whole building. He is the master builder, the one selecting and shaping, and he is the one that is forming the church. It is his church.

28:44Next thing I want to draw to your attention are the stones. The stones in this building. Now, the word stone, you're not going to find that in this particular passage, but it is certainly implied in the context. And you'll notice what he says at the beginning of verse 22. It says, in whom you all, you all, it's plural, y'all, are being built together. Who is the y'all? If you go back to verse 11, you will see that Paul began this entire thought by saying the same thing. Therefore, remember that formerly, y'all, the Gentiles in the flesh, that's who he's talking about here, as the stones in this great building project. It's the Gentiles. It's us. We are the ones who are being built together and fitted together into the formation of the church. And friends, this is really what is at the heart of what Paul is trying to communicate to the Ephesians here at the church there in Ephesus and to us here this morning.

29:53He wanted them to know that they were no longer separated from the plan and purposes of God. They were no longer separated from God and his people. Rather, in Christ, they had been united to them. They had become choice stones being fitted together, being built together with all the other Jews and Gentiles that had been united to Jesus Christ and placed into the church. I hope you can see that. Before I move on to my last point, let me just give you a quick update on the progress of this building project. You can see it in verse 21 in one word or two words. It says, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing. Do you see that?

30:44That's the progress update. Everybody wants a building update when we have business meetings. Here it is. It's growing. The whole building is growing. It's advancing. It's increasing. It's in the present tense, which means it's still growing. Paul says that the church of Jesus Christ is still being formed. There are still stones being added and being fitted together in the church. Did you know that? What does that mean for us? It means that there's still time. Perhaps you're sitting here this morning and you have been resisting the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. And maybe you have rejected the truths of Scripture. You have. Rejected the truths that had been proclaimed through the apostles and the prophets.

31:37Maybe that's you this morning. Listen, if that is you, I'm here to tell you that it's not too late to be added to Christ's church, to be fitted in to Christ's church. And so I invite you this morning, come to Christ. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let Him be the foundation in which you build your life upon. And let Him shape you, let Him shape and give direction and purpose to your life. And you will become a choice stone in God's church.

32:15So, again, first we looked at the foundation of a unified church. Second, we looked at the formation of the church that God is shaping and fitting and joining together all these stones. And now, with the time that we have left this morning, I just want to show you the final component, and that is the function of a unified church. What is the function of the church? Notice what Paul says at the end of verse 21. It says, In whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into what? It's growing into a holy temple in the Lord. That's the first thing that. Paul tells us regarding the function of the church. It is to be a holy temple in the Lord. Now, the believers there in Ephesus would have been very familiar with the concept of a temple. They would have understood that a temple was to be a place of worship. It was a place that was set apart. It was designated as a place of worship for a deity.

33:25And that's what a temple is in its most basic sense, a place of worship. And there would have been temples all around them, right? In particular, the Temple of Artemis. You may recall there in Ephesus when Paul first came, or on his third missionary journey, he came to Ephesus. And that was what the whole issue was over, was the temple of Artemis. And Paul came in there as an apostle. He proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he kind of upset the apple cart, if you will.

33:56A whole bunch of people were getting saved, and they were forsaking their pagan practices. And this guy named Demetrius was an idol maker, and he got all upset. Why? Because Paul was messing up his business, and he was discouraging people from worshiping in the temple. Right, so again, the temple, they would have understood what this was. It was a place of worship. They had this giant icon of a temple right there in Ephesus that they would have known.

34:31But Paul describes the church as a temple, but not just any kind of temple. Notice how he describes it. He says the church was to function as a holy temple, a holy one. It was to be set apart and separate from the pagan cultures of the world. And it was to be characterized by holiness, by purity. It was to be an undefiled temple that stood in stark contrast to the gross immorality that existed among the pagan temples of that day. You see that? It was to be a holy temple, a pure temple, set apart for worship. But notice also, it was to be a holy temple in the Lord. You see that? It was to be a holy temple in the Lord. Friends, this is what makes the church holy.

35:27The church is holy because it has been set apart from every other place and it bears the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church alone is the one that names the name of Christ and as such it has been separate and set apart as a place to worship Christ alone. And so we can see the function there. The church was to function as a holy temple in the Lord, a place to come and worship the Lord.

36:00Now, it's important to note that the word for temple that Paul uses here is a special word, a specific word, that is often used to reference the innermost part of the temple. Now, you may recall the temple was a large structure, and there were multiple compartments in the temple. And in the innermost part of the temple was a sacred place, separated off from the rest of the temple. And I think most temples, even the pagan ones, had a place like this in their temple, but perhaps most of us are most familiar with the Holy of Holies in God's temple there in Jerusalem. And the Holy of Holies was this inner sanctuary, this inner place that was used or seen as the place where God dwelled, right? It was where God's presence existed and a dwelling place of God, which is how Paul also describes it here in our passage in the very last phrase of the verses of chapter 2, a dwelling place of God.

37:12And so this leads us really to the last point that I want to make, and that is the church is to function as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Now let me kind of unpack that for us with the time we have left. I want to quickly remind you of a few key moments. Moments throughout Israel's history where God was dwelling with his people. I'm going to bring these to your mind. The first one is in Exodus, the very end of Exodus. You're welcome to turn there if you'd like, but Exodus chapter 40, this is coming on the heels of the completion of the tabernacle. You remember, God redeemed his people, Israel. He brought them out of the land of Egypt, and he gave them instructions on completing the tabernacle, building this place, this dwelling place, is literally what the word tabernacle means. And he instructed them how to build this tent. And this tent had some divisions in it, one of them being this inner place, right, that Paul references here, this inner sanctuary where God would dwell. And in Exodus chapter 40, verse 34, it tells us that when Moses finished the work, that the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And in verse 35, Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Remember that? Remember reading that? The cloud was the physical manifestation of God's glory, God's spiritual. Presence dwelling among his people. And so we see that he comes and he fills that place there in the tabernacle. And wherever they went throughout their travels, they would set up the tabernacle, and he would come and fill the tabernacle. The cloud would move around with them. Now, eventually, they transitioned from a tabernacle, this mobile tent that moved around with them, to a physical temple, a permanent temple.

39:31Russell read that for us in the scripture reading this morning. The temple, and it was obviously different, right? It was much larger, it was permanent, but it also had the Holy of Holies, this inner sanctuary where God would come and His presence would dwell with His people. 2 Chronicles 7, chapter 7, verse 1, is a recollection of this. And again, you can turn there if you'd like. But this is the dedication of the temple. This is Solomon's dedication of the temple. And in 2 Chronicles 7, beginning in verse 1, it says that Solomon had finished praying. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. Sound familiar? And it says in verse 2 that the priests could not go into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord The Lord had filled the house. Again, this dedication ceremony, and God comes down and he fills this inner sanctuary of the temple, and we see the physical manifestation of God's Spirit dwelling with his people in his temple.

40:51Now, again, if you're familiar with Israel's history, they, of course, rebel against the Lord multiple times, and eventually God removes them from the land. This temple is destroyed. And you have prophecies like Ezekiel chapter 10, where he is recounting a vision of the glory of the Lord moving out of the temple, moving out of that inner sanctuary, out of the Holy of Holies outside the temple. And he was prophesying of God's spiritual presence departing from his people.

41:30And so, again, I go back and read these passages, but these are monumental passages of God's dwelling with his people. And, of course, as you finish the Old Testament, we don't ever see the glory of God coming back into the temple. There is no record of that until we come to the New Testament. And when we come to the New Testament, we see God's. Glory coming back, but it's not into the temple made with hands. It comes in the form of a person. Turn with me over to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. John opens his gospel talking about Jesus Christ being the Word who was with God and was God.

42:23And in John chapter 1, verse 14, he makes this incredible statement, which if you're in truth and grace, you probably have memorized. He says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Literally, he tabernacled among us. He lived among us. He dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John says, the glory of the Father has come among us and it is seen in the person of Jesus Christ. And then in a few verses later, in verse 32, John testifies and he says, I have seen the Spirit of God descending as a dove from heaven. And he remained on him. He remained on Christ. And so again, you have the glory of the Lord dwelling among his people and the presence of God and the Spirit physically manifesting itself in the person of Jesus Christ.

43:29Of course, Jesus. Claimed to be the temple. You remember his words? You tear down this temple, and I will rebuild it three days, speaking of himself. He was the tabernacle. He was the temple. He was that meeting place where people could come and dwell with God. The New Testament is very clear of that. And so we come back to our passage here in Ephesians, and I want to wrap this up and kind of bring all this together.

44:02Back in Ephesians, Paul says that Jesus Christ, this one, the one who dwelt among us, the one who manifests the glory of the Father, he is also the one who has founded the church. And he is the cornerstone of that foundation. He himself is that cornerstone. And he is also the one who is forming the church by hand-selecting each and every choice stone. And he is fitting them together in such a way that they would function as a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Do you see that?

44:43God has chosen to dwell with his people in the church. And he has chosen to dwell with those who have been united together with the Lord Jesus Christ by placing his Spirit within them. That's what he does. When you are And united with Christ, he placed his Holy Spirit in you, and he comes and takes up residence with you, and collectively we become the holy temple in the Lord, a place where God dwells with us. Listen, if we are in Christ, then we are the choice stones in God's holy temple, and we have become a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.

45:28What a marvelous picture that Paul gives to us in the church, describing it as a holy temple, a dwelling place of God. Oh, I pray that you would marvel on these truths, that you would consider them as you go out from here this morning and over the holidays, that you would consider the person that came, that we were about to celebrate at Christmas, the one who came and dwelt among us, who manifested the glory of God. Oh, consider him.

46:03And, friends, if you want to be a part of what God is doing in the world today, then you must be a part of what he's doing in the church. This is where God is directing all of his efforts in the world. He is focusing them on building his church. He laid the foundation, and he's uniting people to Christ so that he can dwell with them. Them for eternity. And so I invite you to come to Christ today. Come to him. Come build your life upon the only cornerstone that can support you, that can shape you, that can conform you, and fit you into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to him today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, we give you thanks. Our hearts are filled with gratitude for the truths that you have revealed through the apostles and the prophets and through Jesus Christ. We thank you for the work that he accomplished on the cross. We thank you that we no longer have to be separated from you. We no longer have to live in hostility to you. We no longer have to be your enemy. But in Christ, we have peace with you. We can be reconciled to you. We can be united to you and dwell with you forever and ever. And I pray that that would be true of every person in this room here this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.