{"id":18464,"date":"2017-11-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-005\/"},"modified":"2017-11-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T06:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-005","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-005\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 005"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[91],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18464","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-corinthians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 005","sermon_date":"20171126","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":5193,"sermon_slides":5194,"sermon_mp3":5199,"sermon_id":"112617106141","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":91,"chapter_and_verse":"3:16-17","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 005\n\n11-26-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 5\n\nFather, we are grateful for another day, coming out of this season especially as we thank You for the many blessings You\u2019ve given us and I just pray You\u2019ll be with our church today as we seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So I specifically ask that Your Spirit would be at work today ministering to people, whatever their needs, whatever our individual needs are.\u00a0 We know that the Bible is sufficient and so I just pray that You would use Your Word today to minister to Your people.\u00a0 And I ask that we would leave here fed and encouraged, nourished, loved and also changed and that\u2019s something only You can do and so we lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name and God\u2019s people said\u2026\u00a0 Amen.\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verses 16-17 as we continue our study on the doctrine of the church, which is Ecclesiology.\u00a0 I hope you all survived Thanksgiving; if the rapture were to occur today the Lord would have to work harder I guess to pull us off the earth after all that cherry pie, pumpkin pie, cranberry stuff, whatever that\u2019s called, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, what am I omitting here, turkey of course, dressing, and we had ribs at our house also, not in a substitute for turkey, alongside turkey.\u00a0 So praise the Lord.\u00a0 You know it is something living in a country like this; you look around the world and the biggest struggle people have is where they\u2019re going to get their next meal; our biggest struggle is keeping the pounds off.\u00a0 So we are really blessed and we thank the Lord for that.\n\nWe started this study a few weeks ago, I think this is our 5th<\/sup> lesson on Ecclesiology, which is the study of the church.\u00a0 We\u2019ve sort of defined the church as the called out ones.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the name ekklesia <\/em>means.\u00a0 The church, as we looked at from 1 Corinthians 10:32 is the third people group that God added alongside the only two people groups that existed up to that point in time, the Jews and the Gentiles.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 10:32, \u201cGive no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God;\u201d]\u00a0 The church basically consists of everybody who has trusted in the Messiah that national Israel rejected.\u00a0\u00a0 And so as we have believed in the Messiah that Israel rejected we\u2019re part of this \u201cnew man\u201d as Paul calls it, the church.\u00a0 And from there we went into the differences between the universal church and the local church.\u00a0 We talked a little bit about that.\n\nAnd where we find ourselves this morning is an area that we\u2019ve been studying for a few weeks now, called the word pictures of the church because a picture is worth a thousand words.\u00a0 And so the Lord, what He\u2019s done is He\u2019s given us at least seven word pictures of the church.\u00a0 And it\u2019s amazing the things we can learn about the church simply by flushing out these seven word pictures.\n\nThe first is the shepherd\/sheep analogy which we talked about.\u00a0 The second is the head\/body metaphor or analogy which we talked about.\u00a0 And the third, I think we finished this up last time is the bride\/groom analogy.\u00a0 And part of the bride\/groom analogy is understanding the Hebrew wedding ceremony, which has (by my count) at least ten parts to it.\u00a0 So there\u2019s parts 1-5, [Marriage covenant, Bride set apart, Bridal chamber, Betrothal period, Bride retrieved.\u00a0 There\u2019s parts 6-10, [Bride and groom hidden in Father\u2019s house for seven days, [7] Bride cleansed, [8] Wedding ceremony, [9] Consummation, [10] Marriage feast.]\n\nAnd when you understand that Hebrew wedding analogy and how the Lord has a program for the church that\u2019s similar (if not identical) to a Hebrew marriage, you can understand what the church is, why the church exists, what the church is supposed to be doing in the present, and what the future holds for the church.\u00a0 We talked about that.\u00a0 And now we come to word picture number four for the church and that is the temple.\u00a0 So the church is analogized many times in the New Testament to a temple.\u00a0 It\u2019s a metaphor, it\u2019s a figure of speech, and that temple imagery communicates a lot.\n\nSo notice, if you will, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, it says, \u201cDo you not know that you are a temple of God and that<\/em> the Spirit of God dwells in you? [17] If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him,\u201d Wow! \u201cfor the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now most Christians are familiar with 1 Corinthians 6, a few chapters later, verse 19, where it says our body is the what? \u201ctemple of the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 6:19, \u201cOr do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?]\n\nBut in 1 Corinthians 6:19, I think it\u2019s the pronoun \u201cyou\u201d it\u2019s singular.\u00a0 So we individually are the dwelling place of God.\u00a0 Most Christians I think understand that; what I find fewer Christians understanding is the fact that Paul switches the pronoun to singular in chapter 6, verse 19, to plural in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 3, in the verses that I just read.\n\nSo here is the whole picture.\u00a0 God indwells us individually, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19, and what he\u2019s also saying here back in chapter 3 is God indwells us corporately, plural, where the church gathered is also the temple of God, or the presence of God.\u00a0 You might remember the verse that Jesus quoted relative to church discipline in Matthew 18:20.\u00a0 He said, \u201cFor where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.\u201d\n\nSo this is a picture of the church where the church is literally the dwelling place of God.\u00a0 My body is the dwelling place of God, so is the church.\u00a0 And this is why Paul is very clear that we ought to be careful how we treat the church because he says, \u201cIf any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, when you come against the church you\u2019re coming against the place where God has chosen to dwell and to abide in the church age as He\u2019s dwelling in our bodies but He\u2019s also dwelling amongst us corporately.\n\nThe presence of God is probably one of the most dominant concepts you have in the Bible.\u00a0 The Shekinah glory of God, the manifestation of God, and what we discover here is we\u2019re very unique because God has chosen to dwell amongst His people, the church, the believers gathered to commemorate Him and to worship Him.\u00a0 And a lot of people, you\u2019ll notice, have a very casual attitude about the church.\u00a0 They will miss a church gathering for the slightest inconvenience, whether it be rain or the baseball game or something like that.\n\nAnd I\u2019m not sure we would have that attitude if we really understood what Paul was revealing here, that the church is something special, the church is something unique.\u00a0 In the church you can find something that you can\u2019t find anywhere else on planet earth and that\u2019s the actual manifesta\u00adtion of God, because as you go through the Old Testament, and Paul a Jew, a Hebrew, is borrowing from this Jewish metaphor, when you go through the Old Testament what you discover is the temple, the Jewish temple, and here I\u2019m not talking about people I\u2019m talking about a physical construction or a building, the temple was a very special place because the temple housed the very presence of God.\n\nYou might remember Moses and in the wandering years, and what\u2019s called the tabernacle as described in the Book of Exodus, the tabernacle basically is what I call a mobile temple; it\u2019s something that they took around with them; they had to take it down every night, put it back together as long as they were outside of the land of Israel, entering the land of Israel they had something called a tabernacle, a mobile temple.\u00a0 Which was very, very significant because that structure housed God\u2019s presence.\n\nNow I don\u2019t really recommend you get too much of your theology from the movies but do you remember Raiders of the Lost Ark I think it was, remember what happened when they opened that tabernacle up?\u00a0 The judgment that came?\u00a0 And that\u2019s actually a story that you can find, I believe it\u2019s in 1 Samuel, if I\u2019m not mistaken, it may be 2 Samuel but you can look that up and discover that.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that when workers touched the temple incorrectly in the Old Testament they were immediately killed.\n\nSo finally this tabernacle structure became an actual physical site in the land of Israel; it moved from being mobile to being actually stationary once the nation of Israel entered the land.\u00a0 And as you know from the Old Testament David was not allowed to build the temple; because he was a man of war that privilege went to Solomon, his son who was a man of peace.\u00a0 In fact, from the word Solomon you\u2019ll notice the word Shalom in the word Solomon; Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace.\u00a0 And so what was mobile then became stationary about 966 B.C. as Solomon built that temple.\u00a0 And when you go through the Kings and Chronicles what you\u2019ll discover is the Shekinah glory of God is entering that structure that Solomon built.\n\nAnd of course the Shekinah glory of God departed from that structure just prior to the Babylonian captivity and Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s destruction of that temple.\u00a0 And the exiles, when they returned from Babylon rebuilt the temple; that temple was destroyed by the Romans, that temple two.\u00a0 And we know that there\u2019s going to be a temple in the future built out of nationalistic pride, that the nation of Israel will build out of nationalistic pride and unbelief, which the antichrist will desecrate; that will be temple three.\u00a0 I sort of agree with Arnold Fruchtenbaum here, that that third temple, which doesn\u2019t exist yet, will probably\u2026 and I can\u2019t be dogmatic on it, but it will probably be destroyed in the final bowl judgment in the Book of Revelation, which describes the greatest earthquake in human history.\n\nAnd then that temple we know from Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies, chapters 40-48, will be replaced one day by the millennial temple in the millennial kingdom and that is the temple that the Shekinah glory of God will reenter.\u00a0 So all of this background shows us that the temple was very significant to Jewish thinking; it was the place where God Himself dwelt.\u00a0 And so if anybody in the Old Testament said where does God live?\u00a0 If it was pre-Solomon they would point to the tabernacle; it is was post-Solomon they would point to the physical structure in the land of Israel.\n\nSo Paul, not rehearsing all of this information, and that\u2019s sort of how the New Testament is set up, it\u2019s not going to rehearse all of the information, it\u2019s sort of expecting us to know these things before we approach the New Testament, Paul writes, [1 Corinthians 3:16] \u201cDo you now know that you\u201d plural, \u201care a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you\u201d plural.\u00a0 [17] \u201cIf any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.\u00a0 So here we are in the New Testament age with a privilege that even those in the Old Testament age never experienced, where God has made a decision to dwell, which is what a temple is, where God dwells, God has made a decision not to dwell in a building but He has made a decision to dwell amongst His people in the church age corporately gathered.\n\nSo I am a temple of God, as are you, singular, but we together are a temple of God corporately.\u00a0 And so that becomes a very powerful word picture, doesn\u2019t it, to describe the church.\u00a0 It shows us that the church ought to be treated with respect; the church ought to be treated with dignity.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, a lot of people, and I don\u2019t have some sorry financial plea to give to you today, our church is doing fine financially, I\u2019m just making a generic statement, a lot of people will get down to their last buck, and oh, I guess I\u2019ll give this to the church.\u00a0 You know, the church is sort of last in their thinking financially, rather than first on their thinking.\n\nAnd a lot of people sort of have an idea that well, I\u2019ll go to church assuming nothing else works out.\u00a0 So the church is sort of last in their thinking rather than first in their thinking.\u00a0 And when we understand that the church is actually the place where God has chosen to dwell corporately amongst His people in the church age that should completely alter the way we think about the church.\u00a0 The church ought to be treated with respect, dignity; it ought not to be thought of as a last resort, it ought to be thought of first in our minds.\n\nAnd so just as a physical temple was constructed in the land of Israel that\u2019s what God is doing today.\u00a0 He is constructing us, not with literal bricks but with metaphorical bricks, into a temple structure.\u00a0 And take a look, if you could, over at Ephesians 2:19-22.\u00a0 Paul picks up on this temple imagery as he is describing its construction in the church age.\u00a0 Now remember what Jesus said, \u201cI will build My church,\u201d so that\u2019s what Paul is talking about here, the construction of the church that God is doing in the present age as people are becoming Christians, believers in Christ, and being inducted into the church, this new man.\n\nSo if you look at verse 19, it says, \u201cSo then<\/a> you are no<\/a> longer<\/a> strangers<\/a> and aliens<\/a>, but you are fellow<\/a> citizens<\/a> with the saints<\/a>, and are of God's<\/a> household<\/a>,\u201d now the household of God is a concept that relates to the temple, the place where God dwells amongst His people.\u00a0 [20] \u201chaving been built<\/a> on the foundation<\/a> of the apostles<\/a> and prophets<\/a>,\u201d now let me ask you a question, those of you in construction or those of you not in construction since it\u2019s kind of a common sense question: how many times do you lay a foundation?\u00a0 You lay a foundation one time.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s significant because there\u2019s a lot of people today that call themselves apostles and prophets.\u00a0 They introduce themselves as either an apostle or as a prophet.\n\nIn fact, when I was teaching at the Bible College one of the things I would do at the beginning of each class is allow the students to just sort of introduce themselves and they would do that publicly, and I did it sneakily because I wanted to figure out what kind of hand I had been dealt, because I want to sort of read people\u2019s theological presuppositions before I start teaching so I can know how to teach, what to emphasize, what not to emphasize.\u00a0 And there were a plethora of students that would introduce themselves as I\u2019m prophet so and so, I\u2019m prophetess so and so, I\u2019m apostle so and so.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what a female apostle is, someone told me that\u2019s an epistle, a female apostle but the reality of the situation is in the technical sense of the word you don\u2019t have apostles and prophets today.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because they were the foundation of the church, Ephesians 2:20.\u00a0 \u00a0[Ephesians 2:20, \u201chaving been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,\u201d]\u00a0 And you only lay a foundation one time.\n\nIf you want to get into the technical definition of an apostle biblically, an apostle, when you go to Acts 1, when they were thinking about replacing Judas (who had committed suicide) with Matthias and they were laying out the criteria for who should be in the inner circle as one of the twelve it\u2019s basically somebody that had to have been with them in the beginning, an eyewitness to the things of Jesus Christ and having witnessed, in an eyewitness sense the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nSo when someone would introduce themselves to me as apostle so and so, rather than just lay into them, which would just upset them, I always tried to use a little humor, just to get them thinking, I would say \u201cman, you look good for your age.\u201d\u00a0 And they\u2019d say what do you mean?\u00a0 I\u2019d say well, according to the Bible you should be 2,000 years old by now, so what\u2019s your diet tips, what\u2019s your exercise tips, you look really good for your age and that would at least get them thinking a little bit, that maybe they\u2019re not an apostle the way they think they\u2019re an apostle.\u00a0 The closest thing you can have to an apostle today would be a missionary.\u00a0 The word apostle just means sent, a sent one.\u00a0 So when you go through the Scripture what you\u2019ll see is the word \u201capostle\u201d is\u00a0 used in a very technical way, as it is in Acts 1, and it\u2019s also used as a common missionary.\u00a0 So there are apostles today in the latter sense but there are no apostles today in the former sense.\u00a0 So we need to be very careful how we\u2019re using this word \u201capostle.\u201d\n\nA prophet is basically somebody who is giving new revelation from God and that\u2019s why the prophets here are called the foundation of the church as well, because when John wrote the Book of Revelation, in A.D. 95, and said, recorded the words of Christ, no one can subtract or add to it, basically John was saying the moment those words were recorded is the moment the Canon of Scripture closed and shut.\n\nJude 3 tells us truth has been once and for all delivered to the saints.\u00a0 [Jude 3, \u201cBeloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.\u201d\n\nSo therefore for someone to say that they are a prophet is basically to argue that they are giving new revelation from God today, which was very real when the church started, at its foundation because the Books of the Bible were yet to be recorded.\u00a0 But today we have no such office because the canon of Scripture has been shut.\n\nThe closest thing, and I asked my professor, Dwight Pentecost about this, the closest thing you could have to a prophet today would be a modern day proclaimer or preacher, or heralder of truth.\u00a0 And Dr. Pentecost believed that the office of prophet once the canon of Scripture sort of gave way to another office, the office of a preacher or a teacher or a proclaimer.\u00a0 And that was his definition, I\u2019m not so sure I buy it but my point is the closest thing you could have to a prophet today is someone who is authoritatively teaching this Book. If they\u2019re giving their own revelations or their own concepts or their own ideas then they\u2019re outside the bounds of biblical authority, in my estimation, and these ideas that I\u2019m sharing you\u2019ll find them clearly communicated in the Sugarland Bible Church statements of faith and position statements.\n\nSo can you have an apostle today?\u00a0 If you define it the right way, as a common missionary.\u00a0 Can you have a prophet today?\u00a0 If you define it the right way, as a common heralder and proclaimer not of new truth but of the sixty-six books that have already been written now that the canon has been closed.\u00a0 And by the way, the Scripture is very clear in 2 Timothy 3:17 that the Scripture is capable of equipping us for how many good works?\u00a0 Every good work.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 3:17, \u201cso that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.\u201d\u00a0 So if the Scripture is capable of equipping me for every good work then why do I have to always be listening for some auxiliary voice out there to sort of supplement what God has said.\n\nThe reason people are attracted to modern day prophets is they kind of want the updated version.\u00a0 You know, who wants to read the version that\u2019s 2,000 years old?\u00a0 I want the new sequel. So people that give themselves the office of prophet sometimes have an audience but the reality of the situation is the ministry of revelation is over; it\u2019s been over since the first century in A.D. 95.\u00a0 And the ministry that God is actively doing today is not the ministry of inspiration, not the ministry of revelation\u2026 watch this carefully, but the ministry of illumination.\u00a0 Revelation is the reception of a brand new truth; inspiration is the recording of that brand new truth.\u00a0 Those two ministries are over.\n\nThe ministry that\u2019s active today is illumination where the Holy Spirit is helping us to understand what?\u00a0 What\u2019s already been said, and maybe to apply it to our lives in a fresh way.\u00a0 But the meaning is fixed and stable.\u00a0 You can have one meaning but you can also have multiple applications.\u00a0 And you see, this is all bound up, as I\u2019ve been trying to explain, in the temple imagery where when a temple is built you put the foundation in first and the very first things that were put in were apostles and prophets and you only lay the foundation one time.\u00a0 So the way Paul is using the word here there are no prophets today, or apostles today.\u00a0 I\u2019m only open to the idea\u00a0 of apostles and prophets today if you define it correctly, and a lot of people don\u2019t.\u00a0 They just throw the word apostle around or prophet around.\n\nBack to Ephesians 2:20, \u201chaving been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,\u201d and look what it says here, \u201cChrist Jesus Himself being the corner stone,\u201d\u00a0 Now that is a fascinating word study, \u201ccorner stone\u201d because the corner stone is the first stone that you put in before laying the foundation.\u00a0 So you put that stone in first, it\u2019s a very special stone, all the builders knew exactly where that stone was in the structure, and you used that stone as a measuring gauge for every other stone that came in.\u00a0 So first goes the corner stone.\u00a0 Who would the corner stone be?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Then comes the foundation consisting of apostles and\u00a0 prophets. \u00a0And then what does it say?\n\n \n\nYou see, the building is only as good as the foundation.\u00a0 Living in the Dallas area we would wake up many times and we would have a giant crack in our wall and it wasn\u2019t because the carpet didn\u2019t look right or the Thanksgiving table hadn\u2019t been set up correctly, or the air conditioner, it\u2019s because of what?\u00a0 The foundation was the problem.\u00a0 And of course we were warned about those foundation problems before we bought the house but we bought the house anyway, but because the foundation was wrong you could have subsequent problems with the building.\u00a0 So a building is only as good as the foundation it\u2019s constructed on.\u00a0 So Paul, when he uses this temple imagery wants us to under\u00adstand that the foundation was right.\u00a0 The foundation consisted of Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, through which all the other stones in the structure are gauged and measured and arranged.\u00a0 And then secondly the foundation of the apostles and prophets was put in.\n\nSo now that the foundation is right what has God been doing for the last 2,000 years?\u00a0 He\u2019s been building on that structure.\u00a0 It says, \u201cin whom the whole building being fitted together is growing,\u201d you see, this is not something that boom, it was done in the first century; this is describing an aggressive construction project that God is doing in the present age.\u00a0 That, by the way, is one of the reasons why the church cannot be confused with the kingdom.\u00a0 Everything we know about the kingdom is when the kingdom comes it will be instantaneous and sudden.\n\nYou remember the imagery in Daniel 2 of the smiting stone that crushes the feet of the statue, and the smiting stone grows and grows and grows until it fills the whole earth?\u00a0 The crushing of the stature or the antichrist\u2019s empire is\u00a0 cataclysmic.\u00a0 This is why Jesus, many times, analogized the coming of the kingdom to lightening.\u00a0 I mean, it is sudden!\u00a0 But that\u2019s not what\u2019s being described here at all; what\u2019s being described here today as the kingdom is in postponement, because national Israel rejected her Messiah and we\u2019re waiting for that future time when national Israel will accept her Messiah in the tribulation and the kingdom will come because God does not leave the earth without a witness of Himself He is busy in a gradual construction process called the church.\n\n[Ephesians 2:2] \u201c\u2026in whom the whole building is being fitted together into a holy\u201d what? \u201ctemple in the Lord, \u00a0[22] in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 So we are part of this tremendous project that God has been doing for the last 2,000 years where He is, by His Spirit, by His Word, winning men and women to Christ and baptizing them into the church and we become participants in the church and when we come into the church we don\u2019t come in at the cornerstone, we don\u2019t come in at the foundation stone, that\u2019s already been taken care of.\u00a0 We are part of the building blocks and we all play different roles but we\u2019re gradually being brought into this structure called the church where God Himself dwells.\u00a0 And this is a gradual process that God is engaging in in the church age.\n\nAnd in my humble opinion what God is putting on today is the roof.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s not relaying the foundation, and I can\u2019t prove this necessarily, it\u2019s just my leaning on it, most of the structure has been built and as we see the nation of Israel regathered in the Middle East we live with the constant awareness that the age of grace or the age of the church is winding down.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s true God is putting in the final bricks, if you will, into this temple structure, not laying the foundation again but He\u2019s putting on the roof.\u00a0 And as that roof comes together you\u2019ll see a description of it in the Book of Romans.\u00a0 You might want to turn over there just for a minute.\n\nThe Book of Romans, chapter 11 and verse 25, Paul says, \u201cFor I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery\u2014\u201c what\u2019s a \u201cmystery\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s a new truth, never before revealed, \u201cso that you will not be wise in your own estimation-- that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until\u201d now the two most important words here (for our purpose) are the word \u201cpartial and the word \u201cuntil.\u201d\u00a0 Israel is in unbelief but her unbelief is partial because God has a future work that He will do through Israel through which the kingdom will come.\u00a0 And so Israel is in that state of spiritual blindness \u201cuntil.\u201d Israel\u2019s blindness is not forever, so one of these days God is going to pull the veil off the Jewish eyes and they will see exactly who the Messiah is in the events of the tribulation period, which will result in the manifestation of the kingdom at the end of Daniel\u2019s Seventy Weeks.\u00a0 But you see, we\u2019re not in that time period yet. Israel has experienced a partial hardening \u201cuntil.\u201d\n\nIn other words, God is finishing up something first. \u00a0Before He begins His unfinished work with Israel He\u2019s finishing up a project right now and what is that project?\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cputting on the roof of the temple.\u201d\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 \u201cthat a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the\u201d what? \u201cGentiles has come in.\u201d\u00a0 So apparently that very last brick, that very last stone is going to be placed into the structure on the temple; the very last Gentile that\u2019s predestined to come to Christ will come to Christ, will be baptized in the church, the moment that happens God says the building project is complete, the temple is finished.\n\nAnd I believe, we believe at that point the church will be raptured to heaven and God, who is not forgetful of His promises to Israel, will place His hand back on Israel and bring them to Christ during the final seven\u00a0 years of the tribulation period.\u00a0 But you see, we\u2019re not in that time period yet because the last Gentile evidently has not come in.\n\nNow personal evangelism, this is why personal evangelism is such warfare and it\u2019s so difficult.\u00a0 When the Holy Spirit convicts you to share your faith with somebody, a family member, someone sitting next to you on the bus, a neighbor, a waiter or waitress, I guess they don\u2019t call them waitresses any more, servers or whatever they are, the Holy Spirit is convicting you to share your faith with that person what\u2019s happening in your mind is total spiritual, psychological warfare.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 I mean, the first thing you think about is they are going to think I\u2019m crazy, what if they don\u2019t believe, what if they think I\u2019m a nut, it\u2019s all me, me, me. We\u2019re not really worried so much about the person that\u2019s on their way to hell, we\u2019re very selfish we think about ourselves in those situations.\n\nAnd essentially what\u2019s happening is the devil is throwing all kinds of problems at you.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Satan is not omniscient.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 When Ezekiel described the fall of Satan, in Ezekiel 28:12-17, he makes a statement there about \u201con the day you were created.\u201d\n\n[Ezekiel 8:12-17] \u201cSon of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, \u2018Thus says the Lord GOD, \u2018You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.\u00a0 [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you.\u00a0 On the day that you were created They were prepared.\u00a0 [14] \u201cYou were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.\u00a0 [15] You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you.\u00a0 [16] By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God.\u00a0 \u00a0And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.\u00a0 [17] Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;\u00a0 You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.\u00a0 I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.\u201d]\n\nSo Satan is a finite being and he doesn\u2019t know everything\u00a0 And Satan, who knows the Scripture, knows that when the last Gentile comes in and the rapture happens then his days are numbered.\u00a0 So what do you think he\u2019s trying to do?\u00a0 He\u2019s trying to prevent that last Gentile from coming in; he\u2019s trying to prevent\u2026 he doesn\u2019t know exactly what stone it will be but he\u2019s trying to prevent that last stone from coming on to the roof to prevent the rapture of the church.\u00a0 Do you follow that?\n\nWhen you experience psychological and spiritual and emotional warfare in personal evangelism it is related to the fact that the devil doesn\u2019t want the rapture to happen.\u00a0 So to prevent the rapture from happening he is working today to prevent the last stone from coming in.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t know if this person that\u00a0 you\u2019re witnessing to is the last stone or not; maybe it is, maybe it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 But he\u2019s not going to take any chances.\u00a0 And so this is a different way of looking at evangelism, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 God wants that last stone in; that last stone is going to be put in but the devil doesn\u2019t want that stone put in because he knows that when that happens the fullness of the Gentiles will have run its course, the work of the church will be over, we\u2019ll be raptured to heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the very first sign you get of the church in heaven, in Revelation 4 and Revelation 5, is a completed church.\n\nRevelation 4 and Revelation 5 is a beautiful picture of the church worshipping Jesus Christ in heaven before the events of the tribulation period take place.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the first time that the church will be corporately gathered in one place together because at that point the last stone, the roof, will have been put in and the body of Christ or the bride of Christ will have been completed.\n\nTake a look, if you could, at Acts 15:14, it\u2019s another description of what God is doing today, the gradual process of the construction of the temple.\u00a0 \u201cSimeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.\u201d\u00a0 So that\u2019s another way of saying God is building something today gradually as Gentiles\u2026 now of course Jews get saved today but ever since Paul\u2019s first missionary journey the primary people that get saved in the age of the church are Gentiles and they\u2019re gradually being saved, they\u2019re gradually being brought in, they\u2019re gradually being built into this new man called the temple.\n\nLet me just give you one other set of verses.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t mind let\u2019s go over to 1 Peter 2:5-9 where Peter is picking up on this temple imagery.\u00a0 1 Peter 2:4 says, \u201cAnd coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,\u201d now what is that talking about there?\u00a0 That\u2019s talking about the cornerstone of the temple; the cornerstone is who?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.\u00a0 He was the first stone, the most important stone, put into the temple structure at its foundation.\u00a0 Now how did He qualify to be this chief cornerstone?\u00a0 Because He was rejected by men.\u00a0 Peter is writing to a Jewish audience here.\u00a0 Who were those, who were the men that rejected Christ?\u00a0 First century Israel.\u00a0 God took that tragedy (lemons) and turned it into what? Lemonade.\u00a0 Through that transaction Jesus became qualified in the age of the church to be that most important stone put in, that chief cornerstone.\n\nVerse 5, \u201cyou also\u201d so I\u2019m part of it and you\u2019re part of it, \u201cyou also, as living stones,\u201d see, we\u2019re not dead stones in a typical temple structure, we\u2019re alive stones because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, \u201cyou also, as living stone are being built up\u201d does that describe something that happens in a nanosecond or a process?\u00a0 It\u2019s clearly a process.\u00a0 You \u201care being built up as a spiritual\u201d what? \u201chouse\u201d what would the \u201chouse\u201d be?\u00a0 The temple, the whole metaphor; I Jewish mind would recognize this.\u00a0 A Jewish mind, Peter is writing to Hebrew Christians, is immediately thinking back to the temple program that God had for Israel and they\u2019re clearly seeing that God is building today something even more significant than a physical brick and mortar building.\u00a0 He is building His people into a metaphorical temple.\n\n\u201c\u2026are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood,\u201d we\u2019ll talk about priesthood down the road, \u201cto offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 6, \u201cFor this<\/em> is contained in Scripture: \u00a0\u201cBEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS\u201d what? \u201cCORNER stone\u201d<\/em> that would be who?\u00a0 Jesus Christ, \u201cAND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you, folks, how tired I am of seeing book titles that read this way: Disappointment with God, it\u2019s like people griping against God because God didn\u2019t do this or do that.\u00a0 I wish we would get our mind off ourselves and start reading His Word because His Word says \u201cHe who believes in Him will not be disappointed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So you either believe the Bible or you can believe the latest best seller.\n\nVerse 7, \u201cThis precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, \u2018THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 [8] and, \u2018A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE\u2019; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom<\/em> they were also appointed.\u201d\u00a0 So depending on what a person does with Jesus Christ he is either a beautiful cornerstone that is put into the temple\u2019s structure foundation first or he becomes a stone that actually crushes them.\u00a0 So do you want Him to be a cornerstone in the temple that you are participating in or do you want Him to be a stone that crushes you?\u00a0 I think I\u2019ll take the former rather than the latter.\u00a0 And whether a person is crushed by Christ or sees Him as this beautiful corner stone completely depends upon whether they trust in His provision for salvation.\u00a0 If you trust in His provision for salvation in the age of the church you are brought into this magnificent structure called the temple, Christ being the cornerstone.\n\nThen he goes on and he says, [9] \u201cBut you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God\u2019s<\/em> OWN POSSESSION,\u201d for what purpose, why are we here doing this, \u201c so that you may proclaim\u201d now how do you \u201cproclaim\u201d unless you open your mouth in praise, right?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026you proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;\u201d why has God put is into this structure?\u00a0 So we can make verbal praise and proclamation to Him who has redeemed us and is building us.\n\nNow you have a lot of people that take the subject of worship very, very lightly.\u00a0 I even see them out there drinking coffee while worship is taking place here in this church, and may I just say to you if that\u2019s your mindset, you\u2019re very casual about worship, today I want to sing, today I don\u2019t want to sing, then you\u2019ve missed your calling because your calling in God is to proclaim the excellencies of His name.\u00a0 Anytime the Lord in His church gives you an opportunity to praise Him, or maybe you\u2019re in the role of a teacher or a counselor where you can proclaim to others the very oracles of God, you should take that privilege of utmost seriousness because that\u2019s why you\u2019re in the temple.\u00a0 You\u2019re in the temple for purposes of proclamation, which means I have to open my mouth and speak.\u00a0 Right.\n\nI run into people and they say this: well, you know, I want to lead my neighbor to Christ.\u00a0 Great, how\u2019s that going?\u00a0 Well, I go over and I mow his lawn every single\u00a0 week.\u00a0 Okay, what else do you do?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s all I do, I just mow his lawn and I want him to see the love of Jesus in me because I know if he sees the love of Jesus in me then that\u2019s going to win him to Christ.\u00a0 Let me let you in on something; mowing someone\u2019s lawn may create the right climate or the right foundation or the right platform by which you share the gospel with somebody but mowing someone\u2019s law in and of themselves will never lead a person to Christ because, \u201cFaith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word Christ.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 10:17]\u00a0 At some point we have to open our mouths and speak the gospel.\u00a0 That\u2019s how people get saved.\n\nNow I get the idea that they are more likely to listen to you if they see the love of Christ demon\u00adstrated through you.\u00a0 But this idea where you go out and you do these service projects just for the sake of doing a service project, I mean, what does that do?\u00a0 That sends a guy with a well ordered lawn into hell basically is what it does.\u00a0 And this is the whole problem with what is called social gospel where service projects substitute for personal evangelism.\u00a0 I\u2019m in favor of service projects; I\u2019m in favor of humanitarian works and those kinds of things from the church IF they are used as a platform to preach the gospel.\u00a0 If the whole point of it is just to have a service project for the sake of service projects then count me out because that falls short of our calling of proclaiming, preaching, the excellencies of Jesus Christ.\n\nThis is one of the reasons we had to start looking carefully at our supported missionaries at Sugar Land Bible Church, many of them very good but some of them would get up here during the missions moment and they would say things like this:\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s what our missionary activity is; we dig wells, we provide water and they go on and on about all this humanitarian stuff that they do and they typically say we try to bring in the kingdom this way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the kingdom has come,\u00a0 I mean Jesus said the poor you will always have with you.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t He say that?\u00a0 [Matthew 26:11, \u201cFor you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.\u201d]\n\nWe dig wells and we put blankets on people and we show the love of Christ and if they happen to ask us about the gospel then we\u2019ll say something.\u00a0 Now shoe me that model of evangelism anywhere in the New Testament.\u00a0 In fact, very few times in my life can I remember anybody asking me about the gospel.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s maybe happened once or twice but it is not normative at all.\u00a0 Every evangelistic opportunity that I have had in my life I have to see an opening that God has provided and I have to be the person that is asserting and I have to take the initiative.\u00a0 And many times we don\u2019t do that because we\u2019re thinking about how that person is going to react to us; we\u2019re more worried about ourselves than that this person is on their way to hell.\u00a0 So we shrink back and we come up with these excuses that well, if I just go over and mow his lawn that\u2019s enough.\u00a0 Well it\u2019s not enough.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is a person has to hear the gospel and they have to believe it to be saved and a lawnmower can\u2019t communicate that.\n\nIt has to come from the mouth of a redeemed person and that is what your calling is.\u00a0 You are brought into this temple structure for the purpose of proclaiming (which is oral, verbal isn\u2019t it) His excellent mercies.\u00a0 That\u2019s what God wants to do with you; He wants to use your mouth, maybe you\u2019re a teacher, maybe you\u2019re participating in worship, maybe\u00a0 you\u2019re a worship leader, maybe you\u2019re none of the above.\u00a0 God still wants to use your mouth to expand or to declare His excellency.\u00a0 Maybe He wants to use you in personal evangelism. So don\u2019t let fear of self cheat you out of your calling.\u00a0 If you spend your whole Christian life mowing someone\u2019s lawn but you never open your mouth, never declare to them the gospel\u00a0 you\u2019ve missed the purpose for which you were brought into this temple structure.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 So look at all of that, I just spoke for almost an hour just on that one metaphor.\u00a0 See all the things God is communicating to us through this temple metaphor.\n\nI just have one more on the list, we\u2019re not going to get to high priest and priesthood today.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Galatians 6:10 is one more verse that uses this temple imagery.\u00a0 Galatians 6:10 says, \u201cSo then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the\u201d what? \u201chousehold of the faith.\u201d\u00a0 Now household, where did God live in the Old Testament?\u00a0 In the temple; \u201chousehold\u201d I believe is another way of saying temple.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice that the church, through this temple imagery, is of such a high priority in the mind of God that this should affect the way we think about the church.\u00a0 We ought to be good to all people but especially the church.\u00a0\u00a0 We ought to be busy doing all kinds of things for God in the world but the priority ought to be the church because that\u2019s where God lives.\u00a0 That is where God has physically, through the Holy Spirit, manifested Himself in the church age.\u00a0 The church should not be a last thought on people\u2019s minds; it should be a first thought.\u00a0 You shouldn\u2019t wake up in the morning and say ah, I gotta go to church today. \u00a0\u00a0The attitude should be I can\u2019t wait to get to church; I can\u2019t wait to get amongst God\u2019s people.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to be in His presence because that\u2019s where He has told us that He has decided to dwell and I\u2019m not going to sit in the lobby and read literature and drink coffee, I just can\u2019t wait to get in here and verbally praise the Lord.\n\nAnd I think we\u2019re losing some of that in modern evangelical Christianity.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing worship as just sort of a routine\u2014I\u2019ve got to through the routine, when does Andy get up and speak, or better yet when is Andy going to be done, one of the two.\u00a0 And we\u2019re missing what the church is.\u00a0 We\u2019re missing our calling, we\u2019re missing this building structure that God is constructing and we\u2019re missing the purpose of why we\u2019re still on the earth during the church age to participate in this massive structure.\u00a0 And you know, we have this situation where some Christians go to war against other Christians.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s insanity, that would be\u2026 using the body example it would be like my right hand and my left hand fighting each other.\u00a0\u00a0 That would be like two bricks of the building opposing each other. We\u2019re on the same team and the body imagery and the temple imagery help flush that out.\u00a0 Anyway, we\u2019ll do number five next time, on the priesthood.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll close it off here and I actually ended six minutes early which never happens.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t