Unfathomable Riches of Christ - Individual Position & Church Body Position
Vern Peterman · Sep 30, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 36
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261912131327

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're introducing something that will likely carry us on for much of the rest of this year and this elective. And so there's an introduction, individual position, and church body position. We oftentimes talk about who you are in Christ, and we speak individually. We explain it individually, very commonly. And here we find also There is that kind of language where things are looked at individually. Even spiritual growth is often looked at individually.

Biblically, however, we get a different picture. We find that, for instance, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we together as a church body are a temple. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we individually are temples. So both individual and collective or corporate, and by that I mean nothing about business, but collective or corporate church body position is also taught biblically, and they're taught in parallel. And they're not looked at as, you know, pick one, they're not conflicted, they're both taught as true. So you individually are a temple, and 1 Corinthians 6, and collectively we're a temple, that's 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and the last part of Ephesians chapter 2. So there's a lot of collective truth about our position, who we are together as a church body.

And the Bible teaches those things in parallel. And the tendency is for people to focus on what's individually true, but to overlook and to not have in mind so much what is together for all of us true. So we'll be looking at that. But this is a key set of truths very often overlooked. very often overlooked, and the Bible teaches them both in parallel together, and so we'll be looking at that for weeks to come. This is just introducing it.

The New Testament presents then a number of truths about our unfathomable riches in Christ that are accomplished and are true regarding all of us together, declaring our position together, and having application in our daily condition also together. By the way, can you love one another all by yourself?

One of the things we looked at when they had to camp out is we looked at the two places, John 13 and John 15. Jesus says, My disciples. He was talking about church age disciples. My disciples, chapter 13, love one another. Chapter 15, my disciples abide in me and I in him. Just that simple and that clear. But it's together. So those are church body together kinds of things.

So we have here an example of this kind of teaching. Good morning. This kind of teaching, and that's, you'll find it in Ephesians 2, 11-22, now we've already been in this passage before, and we've emphasized in those the individual things that are true of us, that is, things about our position that's true of each of us as individuals. But as we're looking at it today, what we're focusing on is the together message, where we as a church body have a position together, and it does not make any sense if it's broken down to just individually. It is together. So let me read through that, and let's kind of stop and walk our way through it.

So it's Ephesians 2, 11-22, and I've got some things bolded in order that we get the together position picture, and then occasionally words in brackets in order to help clarify things. So here it goes, Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed by flesh and human hands, remember that you are at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." So, what's he explaining here? Who's he talking to? Us. Okay, us is one good way to put it. And specifically, what group of us? The Gentiles.

And notice from verses 11 through 12 especially, and a slight reference in verse 13, it's looking at this is the way things were with you before you believed, before you were saved. So that's what he's describing here. Remember that this word formerly is used consistently by the apostles to describe Those who believe before they believe.

A real simple word in the Greek. How many of you like liver pate? It's pate, that's the word. Pate is the word formerly. In fact Paul has already used formerly twice in Ephesians 2 verses 1-3 and now he's using it again to describe the Gentiles before they believed. So, an interesting pattern in Ephesians 2. So, formerly twice in verses 1-3 and now formerly twice again.

So, he's describing the Gentiles in the flesh. What that means is ethnic Gentiles. Ethnic Gentiles. What's a Gentile? Somebody who's real gentle? A non-Jew. If you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. It's real simple. And ethnically, even DNA, you're not a Jew. That's what it means by Gentile.

And the definition, uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision. So who's the uncircumcision? Gentiles. And why? Even if they're males who are circumcised, they're called the uncircumcision. Why? Not a Jew. And then, because the circumcision may be done physically, but it's not been done ritually. See that? May be done physically, but it's not been done ritually. And, by the so-called circumcision, which are who?

The juice, that's it, which is performed in the flesh by human hand. You are at that time separate from Christ. Death is equal to what? Death is separation. There it is. There's the word right there. And when I told the guys at seminary that that, see, there's the word right there, they were stunned.

They had nothing to, just jaw dropped. Whoa, we never heard that before. So separate from Christ, excluded, this is another alternate word to separation, right? Excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers. So triple words. Underscoring what you are apart from, separated from, and don't have. And Paul just gets right on it. You guys didn't have it.

Having no hope and without God, that's atheos. Very closely related to our word atheist. You were atheistic in the world. Not that you didn't believe in all kinds of gods, but if you don't believe in the God, it might as well be. So you were atheistic in the world, having no hope. How much hope? None. Hopeless. But now. So back in verse 4 in Ephesians 2, it was but God. Now it's but now. So when does but now begin? But now. Starting when? Belief. When you believe.

One having believed, and then historically, what was the chapter in Acts? Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, that's it. So that's the starting day for the church, and then effective as each one believes, which could be on the day of Pentecost for those who believe that day. But since then, within what we call the time of the church, the age of the church, at the moment you believe, it's implemented, but now in what?

But now, in Christ Jesus, that's the start of an in Christ statement. There are about three dozen of those in Ephesians, and there are about 164 different places in the New Testament where it's in Christ, in Jesus, in Christ Jesus, in the Beloved, in Him, in Whom, and all those kind of things. 164 times it's taught in the New Testament, and this is one of them.

But now in Christ Jesus you, that is you believers, who formerly were, formerly you were far off, you Gentiles, you ethnic non-Jews, formerly you were far off having been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups, Gentile and Jew, into one, and broke down the barrier, the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is what?

The law. A couple things to point out here. You were brought near by the blood of, and I actually kind of wish I'd put it in there, the Greek definite articles in front of Christ there. What does that mean? The Messiah. So here's something I was talking to Randy about recently. By the way, he's back in Boston with Jessica celebrating their 20th anniversary. Hold on to your thought because I don't want to forget it.

So here you have a few dozen times in Ephesians It's THE Messiah. Most translations overlook that. But it is THE Messiah. It's THE Christ, definite article. And it's THE Messiah. It starts in Ephesians 1.10. That's the first time. Here it is. From Ephesians, the first few verses, all the way to the end of chapter 2, Paul does something that most people don't see.

He switches between Jewish and Gentile terms, sometimes within the same verse. He keeps going back and forth, Jewish term, Gentile term, Jewish term, Gentile term, Jewish term, Gentile term. He goes back and forth and back and forth, as if to work deliberately to include both of them. And one of the reasons he does that is he doesn't, even though the Jews are a significant minority, they are a significant minority here, and he doesn't want the Jews to somehow get left out by just talking to the Gentiles all the time.

Because what he's got to tell them at the end of chapter 2 is absolutely earth-shaking, mind-boggling. The Messiah. put the law out of the way. He's going to tell the Jews that the Messiah put the law out of the way. To the Jew, I mean, the law is it. I mean, that's really, really the big deal. And he's going to tell them, the Messiah, the one that you say, yeah, that's our Messiah. He's the one who put the law completely out of commission.

So watch it as he describes that here in this passage. So he brought, you've been brought near, the Gentiles have been brought near because previously you were separated and excluded and strangers and now you've been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. What God accomplished on the cross? Yeah, and I think this is, a lot of times they say, well Christ died for my sins.

Absolutely. What else, right? And one of those things is he put the law out of the way with regards to us and the church. And that's huge. And he's trying to tell the Jews, the Messiah, yeah, that's your Messiah. You've been cheering him on for centuries. Your Messiah put the law out of commission with respect to the church. And to them that's just going to be blank, blank, blank, just almost inconceivable. The Messiah is going to put the law of the way. He's going to do it by dying on a cross.

Yeah. Well, they didn't believe that Christ was the Messiah anyway, right? Well, let's put it this way. A great many of the Jews did not. Right? So they couldn't believe that the law was taken away because... Oh, the idea that the law was taken away was just completely, you know... Because he wasn't the Messiah. Yeah, I mean, this is a real revolution in any Jew's head. No wonder he met with so much opposition. Yeah, yeah. All of them. What? Yeah, how can this be?

It says early in Acts, we already covered many chapters back, that a great many of the priests became believers. Now, I want to tell you two things. One, a great many of the priests were Sadducees who didn't even believe in a Messiah and didn't believe in any resurrection. What do you have to believe in order to be saved? You believe that Christ the Messiah died for your sins and was buried and he did what? goes again.

So these guys are going to have their heads turned completely around from their entire world orientation. How would a number of the priests have that happen? And there's only one way. They have to have been stunned on the day that Christ was crucified to have that temple veil get ripped top to bottom. There is no other explanation for that. On top of that, here they are in the middle of the Sadducees Passover, slaughtering the lambs. At the end of which, the temple veil gets ripped and all during And the historical record is it was dark at least throughout the Eastern Roman Empire. And we have multiple records to that effect. Yes? That would be like somebody coming in here and taking the Constitution that we have, totally doing away with it, and bringing in a whole new order. That's how it would have been then, but that's not what I was going to bring up.

Why does he say brought near? Because that's like saying to me, you're almost a Jew but not quite. So what this is, brought near is a reversal of the three things separate, excluded, and strangers. Right? Separate, excluded, and strangers. It's a complete reversal of those things. But you're not quite as good as the Jews. No, let's put it this way. Brought near isn't like horseshoes and hand grenades. This is brought close. Brought close.

Because you look at it, how close were you when you were identified with Christ right alongside the Jews? So in other words, it's kind of like chapter 2 Romans, or 2 or 3, where the Jews were given the ordinances and Paul goes through the list. Here's all the things they've got. Right here, Israel had the commonwealth of Israel, covenants of promise. They were with hope and with God in the world. And you say, wow, these guys really have it.

And so the brought near is not near as in horseshoes and hand grenades, this is brought near as in you are now identified with Christ, intimately identified. So it is a complete reversal of the separate, of the excluded, of the stranger statement right up above there. Primarily from Christ. Absolutely from Christ, right? So it's like, you know, you guys have it completely away, now you're brought near to Christ by the blood of Christ, the Messiah.

So this is the thing where the Jews, you can imagine them having a hard time wrapping their head around this thing. What? My Messiah took the law out of the way? This is really turning upside down, but I would compare it to, here are the priests, most of whom are Sadducees, didn't believe in a resurrection, didn't believe in an afterlife, didn't believe in a Messiah, all of a sudden they're believing in a Messiah, and believing in His resurrection, and they're getting their heads turned completely around, and the only way that that could happen is if absolutely phenomenal things took place, which they did. toward the temple veil from top to bottom? How do you explain that?

Well, you don't. Right? And then, you look at it, it is pitch black in the middle of the day. It should be the brightest part of the day. Right? Noon to three. And the whole Eastern Roman Empire, so far as we have any record, was dark, and maybe more. But the historical records, the whole Eastern Roman Empire, dark. Not just a little bit dim. Dark. Yes. Yeah, I was thinking that not only that whole mindset of the Jews having to be changed, or Sadducees plus, a lot of changing for the others as well, but now all of a sudden I get to think of the Gentiles on the same footing. Yeah.

Imagine if you were a priest The sky turns dark for three hours when it should be just really bright. The temple veil gets ripped in two, and then a whole bunch of tombs open up, and you're trying to celebrate Passover, and you're saying, Uncle Slo Mo! I thought we buried you a week or a month ago. You know? Woo! Aunt Maria, what on earth We weren't expecting you. We didn't save you any. But here they come. Can you imagine these Sadducee-oriented priests coming to believe in their relatives and friends resurrected? The tomb is open, resurrected. Jesus is resurrected. They have no other explanation for why that temple veil got such a mess. Imagine the fix-it plan. We're either going to do a lot of stitching or we're going to start over. Meanwhile, you have a veil that violates the law of Moses.

Probably all the other miracles Christ did when he was here came back to their minds and said, oh, maybe they were right. Yeah, so there's a lot of skepticism, but it completely blew it away. You've got to be blind, deaf and dumb not to see all the inexplicable things that are happening all related to this one set of events. It's like, you know, this is your turn-your-head-around weekend. And you're going to start on Friday and it's going to end on Sunday. And boy, there is no explaining anything that you just saw and just heard about.

I see two big stumbling blocks for the Pharisees and the Sadducees. One, he broke the Sabbath. And number two, he claimed to be Messiah. They thought, didn't they think that Messiah was not going to be God? First of all, the Sadducees didn't believe in the Messiah at all. But the ones who did believe in the Messiah, the Pharisees, those of that persuasion, they said, well, the Messiah is not deity. So what did Jesus do? Repeatedly claimed to be deity.

Repeatedly. He kept healing on the Sabbath. He would heal on the Sabbath. They had 39 considerations according to their Statement of the law, 39 considerations as to what was work, and a list of exceptions, and Jesus healing on the Sabbath didn't fit any of it.

Yeah, so he broke the law. Yeah, as far as they were concerned that this guy broke the law, he claimed deity, and one more thing, the Pharisees figured that when the Messiah comes, the Messiah is just going to love the Pharisees. He's just going to think they're the best people, they're heroes. And Jesus didn't think the Pharisees were heroes, and so, well, he can't be the Messiah, right?

Yeah, yeah. So look at it, as far as they were concerned, for both the Sadducees and the Pharisees, nothing fit. Yeah, yeah. But guess what? Both Sadducees and Pharisees came to believe. Contrary, was it in mass? No, it wasn't enough so that Israel embraced Christ as the Messiah, but it still was as a result of totally inexplicable events.

Let's move on. Verse 14, for he himself is our peace who made both groups, so who are the both groups? Gentile and Jew, both ethnic groups, into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, and just in case you don't know what that barrier of the dividing wall is, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, in case you don't quite have it clearly. The law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself He might make the two into one new man.

Now what? How is he going to do it? In himself. Identification. In himself, he might make the two into one new man. Do you have a new man? Do I have a new man? Individually? What does this say? Together. The new man is not your new man and my new man. It's one new man. We together are one person. Spiritually speaking.

And who did that? Who did that? Christ. Christ made you and me into one new person. This word man here, essentially we'll put it this way, one new person, thus establishing peace and might reconcile them both into one body. See that oneness again? How many new men? One. How many bodies? One.

So this is the together position that we have, and who did it? Christ did it, and it is all of us who individually believe have this accomplished, all of us together. So this is church body, collective, together position. We all have one position. spiritually speaking, according to what this says. Yes?

I was going to say, I don't think we can truly understand the depth of that, because they lived in a polytheistic society everywhere in the world, except for the Jews, if I got that right. I think the Jews were really the only ones that had one God, right? In great part, yes. People basically mixed and matched. Right. So if you had a problem or something, you just create a god and then it's going to help you with that. Well, you had all kinds of different things to choose from, right? Even you go to Philippi, one of the major temples there was the Egyptian thing. So a lot of people had Egyptian stuff. The Egyptians had 700 gods, so pick one.

So Paul is basically saying give up your 700 gods and take this one. Because there is one spirit, one God, one Messiah. So he is going to later on really focus on this oneness thing some more. But here is the introduction of it. Who accomplished the oneness? Christ. Christ accomplished the oneness. He pulled it off. He did it. We are one body spiritually. We are one man. The new man is one. One.

Through what? Through Hocus Pocus? Through the cross. So what was happening there on the cross, the Pharisees and Sadducees were going, Yeah, we got him! Yeah! They're excited and they're being sarcastic and making all kinds of rough jokes and things of that sort, they can say, hey, we pulled it off. And Jesus is saying, you ain't seen anything, and you don't know anything. Up here, I may be looking really, really bad and really, really sad, but I'm really pulling off something here. It's going to last forever.

And so he says it. made them both into one body to God through the cross. So what was happening up there, only Christ knew what was going on. Even the disciples were just out of their minds with sadness and puzzlement and bafflement and all sorts of other negative emotions. He reconciled them both into one body to God through the cross. By it having put to death the enmity.

Do you get any idea that the law has some ongoing presence or continuity as you read this passage? No. As Christ brought about the existence of the church and made one new man and one body The law was put completely, totally, put to death, out of commission.

So what does much of Christendom do with the law? tries to bring it back. And so we'll bring it back and we'll put things on it like, well, it's just the 10, or just it's 9, you know, plus 1, minus 1, and play little games with it that way. Or we've got the list of the 10 plus these others that we do, you know, and we better observe. And still, you know, Randy and Jessica are back in Boston, and Randy said, you know, we went to the old North Church this morning for our dose of legalism. So there is much of Christendom.

You put in a lot of the Reformed and Presbyterian and even some of the Baptist stuff, they'll talk about the Westminster Catechism and they have a shorter and a longer catechism and they are both legal. So if he put the law to, my lady, the law on the cross, if he had not done that, then a Gentile would have to essentially convert to Jewish law before they could... Yeah, so this ended up being a big issue because in Acts 15, what was happening is there were Jews were saying, you know, unless you convert to Judaism, Unless you're circumcised as the front end sign that if you converted to Judaism, you can't be saved.

So, yeah, that was the message, and what he's saying here, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Circumcision and not circumcision is not the issue. Christ put it all out. completely. He didn't injure the law, he didn't limit it, he didn't constrain it or weaken it. He killed it. Deader than a doornail. Yes.

Did the head of the household circumcision cover the whole household then? Well, so what it was was essentially the males, right? The males were to be circumcised and that actually had greater priority than the Ten Commandments among the Jews. Why? It came first.

If your circumcision on the eighth day came on the Sabbath, what ruled first? Circumcision. Circumcision, ahead of the Sabbath. So that said, the Ten Commandments, as absolutely venerable and top order, was still less than and less important and of lower priority than circumcision. And circumcision existed before the law. That's right. Circumcision is to be done in spite of the Ten Commandments and historically, by sequence, it started when? With Abraham. So you have by both sequence and by priority, this takes priority over that, by both things, circumcision was first. And you just say, it doesn't matter anymore. Why? The Messiah.

It's still an ordinance. Yeah, it's still an ordinance, but he put it out of the way with regards to the church. So we have, it says, and he came and preached peace to you who are far away. Who's you who are far away? Gentiles. Ethnic Gentiles. And peace to those who are near. Peace to those who were near was who? The Jews. So one question that Stan had is near sort of close but not intimately close? The Jews were near. So he made the Gentiles also near. Brought them near. But near to God. Yes, ultimately it's near to God.

Verse 18, for through Him, who's Him? Christ. For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So you have in verse 18 all three persons of the Trinity. And so, who is the through? Through Christ. We both have, we both who? Gentile and Jew, ethnically. Does that include you? Yep.

Have our access in one spirit to the Father. In one spirit to the Father. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all involved. But who is our access to? The Father. Do we come to the Father trembling, shaking, Well, I hope he doesn't kill me. No. We run into his lap in the throne room and say, Abba Father, Papa. That's because we have peace? We have peace. There isn't any, boy, I sure hope God doesn't, you know, have me killed. There's no enmity there. No. Run into his lap, Papa. Go ahead and run into his lap and jump. That's exactly what God wants.

So then, you are no longer the strangers and aliens you were back up in the first couple of verses there, especially verse 12. You're no longer of that category, you Gentiles, who were far off and separate and estranged and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints. Fellow citizens are of God's household. By the way, so you're of God's household. What's your relationship? Are you a grandnephew? Sons and daughters and brothers of Christ. It's amazing. You can read the whole New Testament and get the picture. It is very clear. People sit there and read the Bible. What about this? What about that? This is very clear. this, read there, read there. This is very clear.

You are brothers with Christ. There is no, you know, I wonder if I'm under the law or how much, you know. No. Sorry, I put it to death. And I am of God's household, not because I'm a grandnephew, but because I am brother of Christ and I have an immediate sonship relationship. There is no grandchildren, no great-grandchildren relationship with God. Yes?

You don't adopt grandkids, you adopt sons and daughters. You adopt sons and daughters. We're all adopted. Yeah, that's something we're directly adopted. I have grandkids that are adopted, but in terms that you're right, you adopt sons and daughters directly. That's how you do it.

In human relationships, yes, I have adopted, but not because I did the adoption. I have adopted grandkids, but not because of my having adopted them. When you adopt, they're your sons. Yes, there is no legal procedure for adopting grandchildren, per se. So when God adopted us, He adopted us as sons and daughters. Directly. Directly. For direct relationship only. God has no grandkids. Yep. God has no grandkids. He's got no grandnieces and nephews. He has no cousins once removed. There's just none of that. Right? Yes.

I was going to say, I think it's really interesting that this message that Paul is writing and teaching is probably direct opposite almost of what he was probably taught by Gamaliel. So the fact that he's saying this, obviously he was taught by Christ because he wouldn't have been able to change his internal teachings without some direction here.

This is so opposed to what He believed in what he taught. So here's Paul, trained under Gamaliel, the premier rabbi of the first century. So far as we have any record, about a thousand disciples over his lifetime. But here's the rabbi of rabbis. And Paul came to learn, nope.

Christ is the one with whom I have relationship. Rabbis speak and everything else, I set it aside. It's absolute sewage compared to my relationship with Christ. Back in verse 17 there on the front. The Jews, they were God's chosen people and had this special relationship and yet it says that peace was brought to those who were near so they didn't have any concept of themselves as being at peace with God. Interesting, huh? Yeah, really the thing about if the law is always there I can always do something or not do something, depending on which law you're talking about. All of a sudden, peace with God is messed up. Because the law condemns. The law condemns, but the law doesn't...

And do they feel condemned? Oh, definitely. Or do they feel special? Well, let's put it this way. If they broke the law, they felt condemned. And now I've got to do something to fix it. So they're always on the edge. The only thing is, but yeah, but what I do to fix it isn't really fix it, right? I went and messed up this way, and this way, and this way, and so now I've got to go do a sacrifice, which kind of holds the line until the next time I mess up and have to do a sacrifice again.

But that's the metaphor of the two mountains. You've got God on Mount Sinai, and this is where the Jews were basically living, not knowing peace. And then you have the picture of Mount Sinai, where You know, God is totally different. I mean, kind, loving, peaceful. It's amazing to see that picture. Let's look at, you said something very important, let's look at it in our very, very small remaining time, on verse 20, 21, and 22. He switches the word picture, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and by the way, have we got any apostles and prophets around anymore?

Why? Why not? Why not? Yeah, but in reality, why not? Well, they're foundations, right? Do you keep building the foundation? You don't do that, you know. Yeah, I mean, I've worked on a few housing and other projects and even engineered things, and we don't keep building the foundation. You keep going and going and going with the foundation.

The foundation of the apostles and prophets who have a foundational place Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, and by the way, do you have the same cornerstone as I do? Yeah, you and I, every one of us here today, all the ones who will be gathered here in this room in a matter of minutes, we all have Christ as our cornerstone. We don't have separate cornerstones. built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the cornerstone, and verses 21 and 22, that's in a Hebrew poetry pattern.

You'll notice that the words are either identical or parallel for each part. So let me read it. In whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Same message as 1 Corinthians chapter 3. in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." You see what's in parallel there? In some cases, the words are identical. Other portions, they rhyme. The picture you get is this temple being built up. So right now, the foundation is the apostles and prophets, but that's done. Right now is the building complete. The building is not complete.

Because the church is still continuing, and it will continue until what day? Until the day of the rapture, and I hope it's today. But until that day, and God decides when, by the way, God the Father decides when, until that day, He's continuing to build the church, and you and I are part of that building project. One more thing, the word for dwelling is not just a house.

A dwelling of God in the Spirit. This is a deep down settled dwelling. Isn't that neat? A deep down settled dwelling is the word. So God hasn't come just sort of as a building as a visitor. It's a dwelling in which he has a deep down settled presence among us. That's cool. So even that word is carefully chosen in the original language there.

We're being built together. And who's doing the building? We're being built together. Who's doing the building? This is the Lord doing this building together thing. So you're God's project. But not just you individually. We together are God's building project. If you've ever had anything to do with building things, that gives you a good sense of what that's like. God's doing it right now, still doing it, and He's not done until the day of the rapture.

Yes. So in other words, that building would be like the end of the 23rd Psalm where it says, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Yes, you're correct, except that how is this different? Well, that was Old Testament. Yeah, so that was an Old Testament context. This is a New Testament context. So I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I'm going to instead be a dwelling. As opposed to just dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, which had an Old Testament context in me. In this case, I am the dwelling.

But it also talks in Revelations about God being in the temple. going into the temple when these things were happening so he didn't have to watch it. So that would be all part of the house as well. Well, and that has a heavenly picture, but this specifically is the church. This specifically is the church, this apostles and prophets, Christ is the cornerstone. This started way back in New Testament times. It ended with the apostles. You don't have apostles and prophets anymore.

So far as the foundation is concerned. But the building is still going on until the day the Lord calls us all home. And I hope it's today. That would be great. So, in passages such as the one above, there are statements of together church body position. There are statements of process. He's together now still building process. Right? All of us. And there are statements of moment-by-moment and day-by-day condition. Day-by-day, moment-by-moment condition with us together as a church body, what is it that goes on every day or is intended to go on every day among us in the church?

Fellowship. This was what we mentioned in John chapter 13. My disciples do what? Love one another. That's every day, every moment, all the time. It doesn't stop at noontime. That was the second of the two commands that John tells us about, that the Lord mentioned. Believe on him whom ye have sent and love one another, not as you love yourself, but as I have loved you. Yes. As I have loved you is a different standard from as yourself. And why the different standard?

Thank you Lord, what a rich and tremendous truth that we have here and we look forward as you allow us to go through this in the weeks ahead as we continue on looking at our unfathomable riches which in this case we enjoy and have together. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.