The sermon by Carl Provost, titled 'The Household of God,' is based on Ephesians 2 and explores the spiritual concept of citizenship within God's kingdom. It begins by discussing how believers, once strangers and foreigners, are now part of the household of God through the reconciling work of Christ. The sermon draws a parallel between earthly immigration and the spiritual immigration into God's kingdom, highlighting the desire for citizenship and the process involved. It emphasizes the unity and peace brought about by Christ, breaking down walls of division. The sermon explains that believers are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. It describes how the church is a spiritual temple, a dwelling place for God, composed of diverse members fitly framed together. The sermon underscores the importance of unity, love, and support within the church, reflecting the familial relationship believers have as members of God's household.

Please take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Actually starting in verse 13. Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.

Hath an abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both into God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And came and preached peace to you, which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

Heavenly Father, we come before you, Father, as we open this word. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would come and teach us, Teach our hearts and apply this word to our hearts. Help us to clearly see how you have called us and set us apart as part of your household. And Father, we pray in your Son, Christ Jesus' name, Amen. You know, one of the topics that is pretty often on the news is this topic of immigration.

It has been for the last few years, and then of course this building of a wall that separates and to try to keep those who immigrate here illegally out of the country. And in fact, there's a lot of probably misinformation about this and people on both sides, those who consider themselves patriotic, who don't want to allow any immigrants in, and those who won't allow everybody in. But as we look at this issue, we recognize that there is a reason that people want to come here. There's a reason why someone would get into a small boat or even a homemade boat and push out from the island of Cuba and try to make it to Florida. There's a reason why Someone would walk miles across the desert, across the river, to make it into this country.

For they recognize that there's opportunity here. They recognize that they have something better here. And many are coming here seeking citizenship. In fact, many have sent their children here without them, knowing that we seem to give more compassion towards those children, hoping that their children can have a better future. Well, the letter to Ephesus is spoken to a group that understands what it means to be foreigners.

For they live in a country that one time was under the control of the Greeks, but the Romans came in and they have become foreigners in their own country to many respects. They have come under new laws. Paul knew what it was to be, both a Jew and a Roman citizen. In fact, he appealed to that citizenship one time because it gave him a right to be tried by a Roman court, where he knew he would not get a fair trial by the Jews. So we see that there are those who desire citizenship, but the citizenship that Paul is speaking of in this text that we'll look at today is a citizenship into God's kingdom.

A citizenship into the household of God. The word for church is not used in the passage today, but Paul is clearly defining it here. What does it mean to be a part of the household of God? As we come to this text today, we will look at it from, we will look at the points that are listed in your bulletin, if you would like to find them there, that you are members of a household. There is only one house.

We are fitly framed together, and we are the dwelling place of God. First, you are members of a household. What we read here in verse 19, Our text today is 19 through 22. It says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. So you are no longer strangers and foreigners.

See, even though We don't see the term kingdom mentioned here. We recognize clearly that Paul is speaking of a kingdom that is not of this world, but that is in this world. In fact, we often, times pray, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For we recognize in the Lord's prayer that was given to us that God is King of all things. And He's King of everything on earth and everything that's in heaven.

And so what is the kingdom? What are we praying for when we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven? What is the kingdom of God? Well just to give a real concise answer, it's where God rules. We think of somebody's kingdom on this earth, and there's a king, and he rules over his kingdom.

And everywhere that he has authority, he exercises that authority. And oftentimes when kingdoms are fighting among themselves, one king will defeat another kingdom and he'll become king of that nation as well. And so when we look at just that basic answer, God's kingdom is where He rules. And so we have to look at this kingdom through the perspective of God, or Jesus being King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as ruling. And He rules in different respects with his people and with nations.

For he has said that he will rule with a rod of iron. Matthew 24 says, And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." And when we read that we recognize that our King is in control. And that even though when we see wars or rumors of wars, even As we talk about and as we see the headlines to do with North Korea now and the potential of another third world war, because we recognize who is in control, because we recognize that we are part of the kingdom of God, the household of God, that we are not to worry about these things because we have a King who is in control. Romans 14, 17 says, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. See, it's not just our provisions.

Oftentimes, governments provide provisions for people. But where God reigns, where Christ reigns, we see righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And so the kingdom that's spoken of here is a spiritual kingdom that lives within his people but that is also exercised in the authority of this world through his people and through the impact they have as they take the gospel out to all nations, teach, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all of the commandments. See, as we recognize that this kingdom is going forward, and as the Ephesians are recognizing that they are no longer strangers and foreigners in their own land, but that they are no longer strangers and foreigners to this Jewish nation, but they have been brought in. That wall of partition has been broken down.

And they have been made into one people. They are no longer strangers to God, but they are in His household. They are citizens in the Kingdom of God. And it's a kingdom that will move forward with power. In fact, Boyce, in speaking to this kingdom, said the kingdom was destined to grow and permeate all nations, drawing from all peoples.

It is a kingdom that cannot be shaken or destroyed. It is a kingdom where Christ will exercise His dominion through the ministry of His people. So how do we become citizens of this kingdom? See those who come across into America either by plane or boat or by walking and crossing and swimming across a river, many of them want to become citizens. And there's a process.

And so we see that there are two different ways you can become citizens in America. We first of all have what's called natural born citizens. Now this is those who are born to those who are already citizens of this nation. And oftentimes we take that for granted. We take it for granted that at one time one of our ancestors came here as an immigrant.

And the fact that our children are born and we don't have to immediately go down to INS and get a bunch of paperwork, spend lots of money and wait months and sometimes years for our children to become citizens, because they're natural born. And we recognize that there is a benefit to being a citizen. And that by the fact that we are born here, that we are Americans, that our children are born Americans. And when we understand this concept of citizenship, and we understand that as we saw here today, when one is born into God's Kingdom, He is born a citizen of the kingdom of God by virtue of natural birth, by the fact that his parents are covenant members in the household of God. And then we have naturalized citizens.

And this is those who have to go to INS and have to do all the paperwork and oftentimes hire lawyers and wade through piles of paperwork to become citizens, because they recognize there's a benefit in being a citizen of the United States. But one of the things that stands out here when we think about this concept of citizenship is there is a defined Citizenship. It's not those who walk across the border. They don't instantly become citizens when they step across that river or when they step off of that boat. They are still foreigners.

And it's the same in God's Kingdom that there are markers that point and are signs and seals that show that you're in the kingdom of God, that you're part of the household of God, that you are a citizen of God's kingdom. And God's Word clearly teaches, as it did in the Old Testament, that there were those who came in, both by being natural born citizens and those by being naturalized citizens. In a sense, those that were naturalized were those who came in and recognized that the God of Israel was the true God. They recognized the promises in God's Word, and they recognized that they wanted to be a part of the true people of God. And we see those who became a part of Israel.

We have Rahab the harlot. We also know that there was a system in place for proselyte Jews, those who became Jews through ceremonial washings. But there was a way to become a part of God's people. And we saw that those who were natural born citizens, that when their children were born, on the eighth day they would take their sons in to be circumcised, to give them the sign of the covenant, to show, to have a mark that they were citizens of God's kingdom. When we get to the New Testament, we find that things haven't changed in the way you become a citizen, but things have changed in the mark, in the sign and the seal.

Nowhere in Scripture do we find something saying that the children are no longer born into the Kingdom of God, those that are born to covenant members. But what we do clearly see is that households believe and they are baptized. What we do clearly see is that those of the Kingdom of God bring their children to Christ and He receives them, recognizing that those who are born to covenant families are clearly a part of God's kingdom. They are citizens. And just as we wouldn't think that our children born to us here in America are not American citizens, we wouldn't think that of our own children.

We recognize that by being born in a covenant family that they are covenant members. And we give them the sign of baptism, for there we no longer use a bloody sign, because Christ came and fulfilled. He was the sacrifice once and for all. And as the cutting away of flesh in the Old Testament signified the circumcision of the heart, now recognizing that Christ came and He was that once and for all sacrifice, and establishing that we now give our children the sign through a sign of cleansing. A mark that they have been cleansed by Christ.

That they are set apart. They are in a covenant family. And then we have those that come, that weren't a part of the covenant, and they come by profession of faith, and they come by making covenant with God's people and by being baptized. And so what we see in this is that there is a membership in God's kingdom. There are those that we clearly know are a part of this church, just as we saw Clark baptized today.

He is a covenant member of this church. In fact, we all made a covenant here today Because we are those who recognize that God communicates with his people through covenants and that we are a covenant people. But this text gets much more intimate than the idea of citizenship. The second part of this first verse here, it says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God Now that's an interesting word there the word actually is Okay, oh And the word means one who belongs to a particular household or extended family. It means like a member of a family or a relative.

In fact, the word when it was used in 1 Timothy 5, 8, it says, but if any provide not for his own, and especially those of his own house, the word there, own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. And so when we read here that we become part of the household of God, it's saying that we become brothers and sisters. We become part of the family. You know, oftentimes we hear the term, blood's thicker than water. And of course, that usually means don't cross somebody in a family because you might think they're going to be on your side, but blood's thicker than water and they'll turn on you in a minute.

And sometimes I've even been questioned about relationships with family. And oftentimes I have family members that I don't see that often. Family members that maybe occasionally I'll hear what's going on in their life. But what I recognize is the family that is really my true family is the family that sits here that I am in covenant with. For God's Word says that we are made of the household of God.

That if we are those who trust in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We are part of God's household. We all have a familial relationship. See, to become a member of the family of God, we must be either born into it or adopted into it. It's not just doing the paperwork for citizenship, it's adoption.

You know in the Roman society, adoption was a term that was used to speak of those who would adopt somebody as their son And oftentimes it carried with it more of a sense of airship than a natural born son. You could disown a natural born son, but You couldn't disown and adopt a son in the Roman government. We also have laws here for adoption and they're not as strong as those in Rome. But what we recognize is when somebody is adopted, they become your son or your daughter. You know, it was interesting when we came back from Russia after adopting Katerina, we adopted her again in Louisiana.

And I remember when we adopted her, even though we can't find it now, I remember seeing a birth certificate that had Lynn and I listed as the parents. And nowhere on that document did it say adopted. She is our daughter. And she has no different standing than a natural born child. And that's what it means to be adopted into the family of God, to be those who are made a part of the household of God, is that we are a family.

See, being a part of God's household brings a network of spiritual brothers and sisters. It brings us into the oversight and fellowship and prayers of the church. Being a part of the family of God allows us in the household of God, allows us to come and have the right to receive sacraments. It gives us access to God the Father, who tells us in His Word that He hears our prayers and that He answers them. In fact, Paul, in giving instruction to Timothy, says that we should look to older men as fathers, to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters.

There's a way that we should relate to one another. And None of us should be trained how to do it because we all have families. But do we do it? Are we ourself when we come to church? You know, at home you can act a certain way and nobody thinks anything of it.

They accept you for who you are. But is that the way we are when we come together as the family of God? Or do we become somebody who we're not? See, family is where you can be assured that you're accepted. See, as a family, we should be sharing one another's burdens.

We should be trusting one another, encouraging one another, long suffering with one another. We should be giving Christian liberty to one another on what are the non-essentials of the faith, allowing there to be some differences. See, when we're with family, and we see this oftentimes when we're raising our children, we don't always have to be right. Sometimes we can let things go, so we love one another, encourage one another. We don't always have to be right.

Sometimes we can let things go. So we love one another, encourage one another. We don't always have to be correcting others or correcting others outside of our church. Recognizing that even those that are outside of this church are our brothers and sisters in Christ if they are those who profess faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior. See, a church that truly acts as a family would be one that was, as God's Word says, the world truly knows that they're My disciples by the love that they have for one another.

It's a unity that doesn't come from our organization, our ritual, or our liturgy, but it comes from the fact that Christ is the head. The church will realize her unity when she realizes that she does not exist to propagate the point of view of any body of men, but that we exist to propagate Christ. As we continue to look at this concept of the household of God, the second thing I want to look at is that the household of God is one. There is only one house. Verse 20.

It says, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Actually if you read commentaries on this you'll find that there's quite a bit of debate on the word prophets here. In fact, one theologian tries to interpret this as the apostles who were prophets.

He doesn't even want to see these two distinct groups. Of course, He has his own reasons for that. But historically, most of your older commentaries see this as Old Testament prophets. The foundation of the apostles and Old Testament prophets. And therefore we recognize that the authority that they have, Who are prophets?

Prophets are those who are the mouthpiece of God. They are those who proclaim God's Word. Apostles are messengers of God. And so we see there that they are those that carry a message. Now part of the debate is that if this was speaking of Old Testament prophets, then prophets would come before apostles.

And then there's a verse later on that they say keeps this from being interpreted as Old Testament prophets. I find myself in agreement with the position that Martin Lloyd Jones takes in that at the time of the first century church, when the apostles and New Testament prophets were in the church, they didn't have a copy of the New Testament. What they had was the Old Testament Scriptures. And when we read that all Scripture is profitable, we recognize that what they were preaching was Christ from the Old Testament. They were showing that God's Word, the Messiah that was to come, the Savior of the world, that Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, that One who would deliver us by His stripes.

That it was Christ Jesus who fulfilled these prophecies. The prophets spoke of Christ, and that's what they were able to preach. And so whether this is speaking of Old Testament and New Testament prophets, it's still speaking of the same Word of God that was laid out as the foundation for the church. See, all of the Old Testament prophets points to Christ. And the foundation for the church is laid by their teaching.

See, when I think of a foundation, oftentimes I think of how we build a foundation here. I haven't been a part of the process a few times. Here we like to predominantly build houses on slabs and they'll come out and they'll put the forms up and according to the plans and they'll come in and they'll put all the steel in and pour the concrete. And everything looks pretty good. Well then The carpenter crew shows up and he starts laying out the walls.

And then all of a sudden you find out that one side of the slab is three inches out of square. You can't really fix that, so they start trying to figure out ways to hide it. And you don't step in a house built in this area that's perfectly in square. Every wall's in square. It's just, there's no perfection there.

But that's not what the household of God is like. For we are told in the second half of this verse that Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. Now I talked about this earlier in Ephesians, but I'll go over it again quickly. The concept of a cornerstone, or at least a foundation cornerstone, there was a cornerstone and there was a capstone, but here the concept is clearly a foundation cornerstone. A cornerstone would have been a stone that they took precision in making sure that it was perfectly square.

It was much larger. In fact, the cornerstone that is visible today in what's left of the one section of wall of the temple or what has been discovered through archaeology is about the size of a railroad car. Big stone. And the cornerstone would have been one that would have been cut perfectly square and placed exactly where they wanted the corner of the building and every other stone would have been laid based off of that square, off of that corner stone to make sure that the building was square. Now working with stone is much more precise than working with wood.

And so it's very important to get things laid out perfectly. And so what we see here is even In the Old Testament, when the foundation was being laid, Christ Jesus, the pre-incarnate Christ, was the cornerstone. And so therefore The foundation is perfect. And so the foundation in which the household of God is built upon is a perfect foundation laid out by Christ Himself. Isaiah 28-16 said, Isaiah 28, 16 said, And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand." That's actually the wrong verse.

1 Corinthians 13-7 says, For other foundations can no man lay, than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." See, we recognize that there is no other foundation. During the time of Paul teaching the Ephesians, there was a physical temple that stood. See, the physical temple was only a foreshadowing. We just read through Exodus, and we saw this concept of this portable temple that they had built. And later on in God's Word, they build a permanent temple.

And we have this temple that's built that's a foreshadowing of the true spiritual temple. And so What he's saying is there's not two houses. He's not saying that there's one house here that you just became citizens of and that you were adopted into, and then there's another house in Jerusalem that the Jews go to. He said that while the partition has been broken down, there is one house. And that foundation that was laid in the Old Testament that was fulfilled in the ceremonial parts of the law by Christ when He came and He died upon the cross is that once and for all sacrifice, that there now is one spiritual house.

So how is this temple of God built? If we're part of a house and we're being built into a house, and the physical temple is not the true temple, but the spiritual temple is, how is the temple built? Verse 21, it says, In whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. Fitly framed together. Now this is an interesting word also.

This is a word that's found nowhere else in Greek writings. It's only found in a couple places in Christian literature, in God's Word, in the New Testament. And so what we basically have here is a word that was coined by Paul in order to communicate a concept. So he put a couple of words together to create this word. And actually, I think there's one translation that says welded together, which doesn't really work because you can't weld stone.

But fitly joined together is probably a good translation of this word. But what he's saying is, is there's a process in this building. And it's not a building that where every stone is uniform, and you just lay them out. This isn't Legos where everything fits. It's cut perfectly to fit.

This is Stones that are different shapes and sizes. In fact, I think the best way to illustrate this or to think of this is to think of a stonemason. If you've ever seen the work of a stonemason. I'm sure some of you have come across some of these stone walls or stone buildings. And I'm always amazed when I look at this wall and it's a straight wall.

And sometimes they're a couple feet thick in these old buildings, and you see stones of all different sizes, but they all fit together. And I'm always amazed, I'm like, this guy must, I mean, I could imagine him packing a moving truck. He fit everything perfectly together. He found out every piece and just how it fit in there. It's craftsmanship.

It's the work of a stonemason. And you can imagine the guy building this wall and he's looking, he's got this wall to build and he's got this large pile of stones. And he goes over and he collects a stone and he looks at the wall and You know, he finds a space or maybe he finds a space first and then finds the stone. But he finds a stone that looks like it's a good fit. He goes up there and he sort of checks it and he's got a hammer and a chisel.

And he might have to chisel a little bit off, but he makes that stone fit in that place in the wall. And once he's got it cut the way that it should fit, he'll put his mortar in place and put the stone in place and then he moves on to the next stone. And it's a process. But when they built buildings like this, these buildings, Many of them that were built thousands of years ago are still standing. This is permanent construction, barring an earthquake.

These are not walls that are moved easily. And so even though they put a lot of time into it, in some of the great cathedrals, it took centuries to build them because of the work that needed to go into the stones. And at the end what he has is this beautifully straight wall built out of stone of all shapes and sizes. See, this is also another illustration that shows us what a church is like. See, the Gospel touches all kinds of men from different walks of life.

We come in here with all different shapes and sizes. And I'm not talking about physically, I'm talking about spiritually. Some of us have different experiences. Some of us come from different parts of the country. Some of us use English words in a different way.

But yet, we're a part of one family. See, that even though we come in and we have a diversity of people, there shouldn't be divisions drawn because of those diversities, because of color of skin or because of what part of the country we're from. Everyone should have a place in the Church of Christ and everyone should fit in. There should be no clicks, no unnecessary divisions. See, we don't want the dull, drab uniformity that we see oftentimes in clubs and things that are in culture, we should be a diversified group of people because God's people are diversified.

Now we have challenges in our culture that oftentimes people place these divisions upon themselves, but it shouldn't be there because of the gospel of Christ Jesus. That God draws together a diversified group of people. And we hold to things that we think are clearly taught in God's Word. You know, one of the things that our denomination holds to is that we believe that parents should Christian educate their children. And I believe you can defend that from God's Word, but we shouldn't be the homeschooling church.

I believe that God's Word clearly teaches that His law is the standard for all moral decisions. But we shouldn't be just known as the Theonomy Church or the Post Mill Church. We should be known as those who are followers of Christ Jesus. See, I think this is maybe not on the doctrinal level, but at least on the diversity between personalities is beautifully displayed when we go to Presbytery. You know, when we go to Presbytery, I've been to three of them now, and we're blessed.

We gather together with people who love Jesus. Last year we were in California. Met a lot of people that are part of a nomination that I'd never met before. Beautiful people. A beautiful diversity.

But even within the elders, when we gather together, One man who formerly had won this Pentecostal, he's a lot of fun in our group. He's now reformed, but he still carries some of those charismatic ways with him. And I love that diversity. It's beautiful. It's something that only God can bring together.

Apart from the love of Christ, we would divide ourselves up and splintered up into little tiny groups. But Christ Jesus brings unity through His gospel. We also see in here that God's household is a work in progress. It says, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. Now the concept here is that we are being shaped by the gospel of Christ.

That we are all stones being built into a spiritual house and some of us need a little more work than others to be a good fit. But yet, Christ is working on us, and we're growing together. And He's bringing through natural born citizens and through naturalized citizens, those who come in and profess faith in Christ. He's growing his household. He adds to his church, and we are all being built up together into a holy temple.

So what is the purpose of a living, growing, moving, beautifully diverse temple? Verse 22 says, In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Or other versions say dwelling place. We are being built together as a dwelling place for God. Now we see this concept of a dwelling place in the Old Testament.

In fact, we read through it a number of weeks ago when we read Exodus 40. They had built the temple, They finished it, the portable temple in Moses' day. And God had been with them as a cloud to show them His presence. Now Moses understood that the temple couldn't contain God, that God is everywhere. But yet, for the purpose of the people, once they had completed this temple and they had the Holy of Holies within this temple, it says that the, and I'll read the verse here, it says, then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Now this was visibly seen by the people. And so what they saw was the representation of God dwelling in His temple. And when they would bring their sacrifices, and the priest would take those sacrifices, and he would lay his hand upon the animal, and he pronounced the sins, and He would sacrifice, and He would take blood, and He would pour it upon the altar. They were recognizing that they were bringing atonement for their sins to God. See, God also gave Ezekiel a vision of him leaving his temple.

Ezekiel 10, 18 and 19 says, Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubims, and the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. And they went out, the wills also were beside them. And everyone stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house. And the glory of the God of Israel was over them above." See, God gave Ezekiel this vision of God leaving the temple because God, as we understand when we read in Hebrews, was never appeased by the blood of goats and bulls, but only by the blood of Christ. All these things were foreshadowing what was promised in Christ Jesus.

And by Him leaving the temple, by this vision He gave to Ezekiel, he was paving the way for the destruction of the physical temple that only foreshadowed Christ. It was only there to point to Christ. And in fact, there's an overlap. The church comes in through Christ, the new covenant. But yet, we still have the old covenant temple.

And the Christians departed Jerusalem, and the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, and they destroyed the temple. For see, God no longer dwells in that physical temple. For He now has, Christ has fulfilled the foreshadowing of the physical temple, and he now dwells in a spiritual temple. God dwells in us. But it wasn't only that, we also see the image given at the crucifixion of Christ, where in Matthew 27, 51 we're told, And behold, the veil of the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.

See, the veil was there in front of the Holy of Holies and only a priest could go in there. And it was showing that there was a separation between God's people and God because He was holy. But now their sins have been atoned for once and for all. That veil was torn from top to bottom to show that the veil was no longer necessary and it was torn by God. This veil was said to be about five inches thick.

You can imagine the strength of that, but God in a display to clearly teach His people to tour it from top to bottom to show that that veil was no longer necessary. We no longer needed to go through priests of the lineage of Aaron to intercede for us. For we now have a heavenly priest who entered the Holy of Holies once and for all and offered sacrifice for our sins. He said, I must depart so that I can send a helper. And He sent the helper, the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us.

1 Corinthians 6, 19-20, Paul says, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price? Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. We are being built up into the household of God in order to be the dwelling place of God. This verse in Corinthians tells us that our bodies have been bought with a price.

They no longer belong to us, they belong to Him. The Holy Spirit resides in us. And we know that we struggle with sin, but we also are told that it's the power of Christ in us through the Spirit that's in us that gives us the power to overcome sin. To be able to keep the commandments of God, to be those who display our love for Christ by keeping His commandments. So from this text today, know that you are in the household of God.

This needs to be a knowledge that you know, and If you don't know that you're in the household of God, profess faith in Christ, make covenant with His people, proclaim the name of Christ. Know that you are brothers and sisters in God's family. Know that you have been adopted by God and are joint heirs with Christ. Know that you have been built up into a house and Abraham is your father. Know that you are jointly fit together into a beautifully diverse house.

We should enjoy the diversity of God's people. Be loving and encouraging and long-suffering with each other and with your brother. Allow liberty of conscience with your brethren. And know that God's dwelling place is in you through the Spirit. And may the world know that we are His disciples by the love that we have for one another.

Heavenly Father, we come before You, Father. We thank You for this word that You've given us, Father. I pray that we would recognize the benefit that we have by being a part of the household of God, that you have made us brothers and sisters with Christ Jesus being the firstborn, and that we are a family and that we would bear one another's burdens, love and encourage one another, Live in a unity that can only be displayed by the love of Christ as the head of the church. And Father, we pray in your Son, Christ Jesus' name, Amen.