THE apostle in this chapter describes the privileges that belong to God’s people—to believers. Notwithstanding what they were by nature—children of wrath, even as others—when changed by grace and reconciled to God through the death of Christ, they were accepted as if they had never sinned, and that because of the full satisfaction given to God by the work of Christ in their room and stead. If they did evil, He did good; if they deserved punishment, He bore their punishment; if they deserved to die eternally, He merited for them eternal life. To these privileges we desire to direct your attention for a little this evening; and we ought not only to attend to them as things that belong to others, but to seek that they should belong to ourselves. These privileges belong to all God’s people, whether Jews or Gentiles, white or black, old or young, wherever they are situated in this world. They are spoken of in two ways—negatively and positively.
(1) Negatively.
The first privilege here then, besides those mentioned in the eighteenth verse, is that they are no longer “strangers and foreigners,” for he tells them at the twelfth verse that such they were before they were effectually called—before they were saved. “At that time,” he tells them, “ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” They were outside those privileges before they were called by the gospel; and so we also, if we are made the children of God, were at one time outside these privileges, and were “strangers and foreigners.” There was not such a thing at all among them in their heathen state as any of the privileges that belong to God’s people. They had not the Word of God; they never heard of Jesus Christ, the Saviour; they knew not that they must be born again. They had not the means of grace; they were never seen as a people going up to God’s house to serve the living God, and to receive His blessing. They were strangers; and so are all who are in an unconverted state, even although they are in possession of the outward means of grace. Strangers may come amongst the inhabitants of a country, or into a family, occasionally, but they do not belong to that country or that family. People may come to the house of God occasionally, but still they are strangers, just as you may see strangers passing through the country, and calling at a house here and there, but they are none of those families. Sinners in a state of nature are strangers to themselves. This may appear wonderful, but it is no less true. What is your age? Are you twenty years old, and yet you do not know yourself? Have you been, so to speak, twenty years along with yourself, and yet cannot tell your neighbour who you are? Then if you are still in a state of nature, you are also a stranger to God; you do not know Him. You are a stranger to the peace of God which passeth all understanding; you are a stranger to the experiences of God’s children; you are a stranger to spiritual things. You can understand natural things, but as to spiritual things, they are a mystery to you; they are hidden from you. All these things are true of many who have lived for scores of years in a gospel land from their youth upwards; they are strangers to themselves; they are not yet convinced that they are sinners, that they are lost, that they are children of wrath, and they are strangers to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ. They know not in their own experience, nor in a saving manner, the way of salvation. If you ask some in Dingwall of the way of salvation, they will keep as far as they can from Christ’s humiliation and death; they will say that God is merciful, that He never created man to cast him into hell, and that all will yet be saved. It is lamentable the ignorance of spiritual things that is to be found amongst people in possession not only of one copy but of many copies of God’s Word. Believers, however, are not strangers; they know what it is to be born again. Then, also, they are not foreigners. You see, a foreigner is a person of another country who comes to this kingdom, but has none of the privileges of this country’s citizens. So sinners by nature are outside the kingdom of Christ. Even in a gospel land this is true. Until you are born again—until you are found in Christ, not having your own righteousness—you are just like a foreigner who has no interest in a country he visits, at least, not so great an interest as the real natives of that country.
(2) Positively.
But then the apostle proceeds to speak of their privileges in a positive way. Not only are they not strangers and foreigners, but they are fellow-citizens with the saints. The Church of God is called a city, and the members of that church are citizens. One way of being a citizen is to be born in that city. Some have to buy the privilege of citizenship, but those born in the city are free; they are by nature citizens. So that those born in Zion, in the city of God, may say with Paul that they are free-born, while another had to say that the privilege cost him much. A citizen is entitled to all the privileges common in a city; and, in like manner, there is not a blessing which God provided for His people but belongs to each and all who are born in Zion, and who are citizens of the city of God. All things are theirs; the gospel is theirs; Christ is theirs; the Holy Spirit is theirs; eternal life is theirs; all the blessings of Christ’s purchase are theirs—not only the blessings they need for eternity, but also those of time—all things are theirs. They have a covenant right to the bread they eat, to the water they drink, to the raiment they put on—all temporal blessings necessary for their journey through the wilderness of this world have been secured to them at the expense of Christ’s sufferings and death. Farther than this world they do not require those temporal privileges, and so Paul says, and says for the teaching of others, “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content,” for we shall soon be in a state where such are not necessary. He speaks now to Gentiles, to the Ephesians, who were worshippers of false gods and goddesses, who at one time cried, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” but now they are changed—they are fellow-citizens with the saints. In the chapter which we have read (Ephesians, 3rd chapter), this is spoken of as a mystery, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus, by the gospel.
Again, the church is compared here to a house, and believers are of the household of God. They are members of God’s family. Notwithstanding what these Gentiles were, and what all men are by nature, this is now their privilege. God has a family in this world. God’s household is divided between earth and heaven. Paul, in speaking of the family of God, finds some of them on earth, others in heaven; but he never finds any of them in a third place. There are those who hold that some of God’s people are in a middle state in eternity. Well, Paul knew of no such thing, and he knew the family of God better than any now living. If there are any of the human race in another place in eternity, they do not belong to God’s family; they are of the devil’s family; they are in hell. The Word of God is our rule and guide, and unless we hold views in accordance with Scripture, we are in error. The teaching of Scripture concerning the household of God is that there are some of them in heaven, the others on earth, and if there are others, they are still to be born into this world. This third part has not yet come into existence; but when they are born into the world, God will convert them, and bring them unto Himself, by regeneration and the new birth. The household of God in eternity is to be found but in the one place—in heaven. We insist upon this point, my friends, the more because there is a time coming when the contrary error will be swallowed by the great majority in Scotland, and even in this town. “That is impossible,” you say. Well, when Dr. Kennedy was here, it was thought impossible that such a departure from truth could have occurred amongst those who sat under his ministry; thirty years ago it was considered impossible that the majority of his congregation could go over to another gospel, but still they did it; and some of them who at one time would have raised their voice against error, or any departure from Dr. Kennedy’s teaching, are now silent and dumb. One of the privileges of believers, then, is that they are regenerated by the Spirit, and born again into the family of God. They are of the household of God. God Himself is their Father, as we have been observing in the 18th verse, that through Christ we have access unto the Father by one Spirit, and they are His children. But in this world they are, as it were, in the nursery. Children, when but very young, are left in the nursery. Ah! if we be God’s children, we are as yet in the nursery; we crawl, we try to walk, we stumble many a time, and we need Christ, the Elder Brother, to raise us up.
In the house on earth, we are being prepared for the house in heaven, “the house not made with hands.” What expectation have you now in view of death? Have you any sure hope that you will be amongst those grown-up children—that you will join them in heaven? Well, before you can have any such hope, you must be of the household of God upon earth; and once you are a child of grace, that relationship is everlasting. In going to a foreign country, you can break many a tie, but you cannot break the relationship between you and your father. A boy going from Dingwall to America, sets a long distance between himself and his father, but all that distance does not affect their relationship. That relationship stands as surely in America as it did in Dingwall, and such is the case with the child of God; the relationship is everlasting. Perhaps you say, “Oh, that I had an assurance from God that I belong to His family on earth!” Well, have you any delight in God? Do you love Him? Are you grieved that you do not love Him as you would like? If so, that is something of a child’s spirit. There is such a thing as natural affection, and I may say that there is in God’s children a natural affection according to grace; they feel they are attached to God, although at times they cannot call Him their Father; still, their desire is after His name. There are many in this world, and that in the land of the Bible, who never examine themselves on this point. They go to eternity on a peradventure; but that is a most hazardous, a most dangerous thing. We ought to know who we are, whose we are, who is our father, and to which family we belong. Are we still of the old family of Satan, or have we been translated to the family of God, so that Paul might say of us, as he said of these believers, “Ye are of the household of God”? I have never, during my thirty years’ ministry, preached to a congregation in which I could not address some, at least, as the children of God, and it will be a sad day, if such a day should come, when, in my own poor way, I will address an assembly of immortal souls where there is not one of the family of God.
“Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again.” To be born again is not a shadow, not a picture—it is a reality: it is a work of God in His people, which none but Himself can accomplish. We had no hand in our creation, and in like manner, and in a spiritual sense, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” You young people, what do you think about this matter? Do you put off this important matter until it is too late? Will you go unconverted to the grave? In a churchyard, you see many more graves of young people than you do of old people—more short graves than long ones—and some of these people put off the salvation of their souls until it was too late, and such as died in that state are lost. You are still left, and Christ appeals to you to come to Himself, that He may save you, and that you may become members of His mystical body, and of the household of God. Were it not for the power of spiritual death, no sinner could bear the thought of being without Christ. Even a child of God is brought very low when he is in darkness about his state for one day, while others are in darkness about their state all their lifetime without any concern.
Another privilege belonging to God’s people is that they are built on a sure foundation. The apostle compares the church of believers to a building. “Ye are built,” he says, “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” What does he mean by that? I need not ask the question of God’s people; they know what it means. Does it mean that believers rest upon an arm of flesh—on these good men, apostles and prophets? Ah! it does not mean that at all. What, then? It means that they rest upon the foundation set forth in the prophets and preached by the apostles. It was the same foundation of which both prophets and apostles spoke, and it is the same foundation we preach, so that it may also be said that believers are built upon the foundation ministers preach now. You may examine yourself on this. Read the writings of the apostles and prophets, and see in these that it is Christ Jesus, the Son of God, as Mediator, that is set before sinners as the only foundation. Now, these are said to be built, and this implies the work of another. It was God, by His Spirit, that laid them on this foundation—Christ. By faith they received Christ, but it was God’s work to lay them on the foundation. It implies also that they are being built. The house is not yet complete: there are more stones to be put into the building. God at first called effectually many of the Jews, brought them out of a state of nature, and laid them upon this foundation. He then turned with the gospel to the Gentiles, and found many there, whom He laid on this foundation; and from that day to this the gospel has been preached to sinners. God needs stones for the building. It is not complete yet, but when it is complete—when the top-stone is put on the building—then the Bible shall be sealed. There shall be no more preaching, no Sabbath, no such thing as people coming to church. See then, my friends, that you have your place in the building, that you are on the sure foundation. The apostles and prophets never spoke of the work of man as a foundation, except in warning people against it as a foundation that would be swept away when the flood and the storm came.
Then the apostle speaks of Christ Himself as “being the chief corner stone,” as well as the foundation. The use of a corner stone is to unite the building; and believers not only rest upon Christ as the foundation, and are united to Him, but they are also united to one another in Him. They are one building. There are many stones in a house, but the house is one; and so the church is one, though there are many members in it. In Christ all the building is fitly framed together, and groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. The work of God in this spiritual building is a work that shall stand; it is fitly framed together—so firmly framed that it will never be broken to pieces again. It is different from the state of man at the first creation. Man was perfect then, but he fell from the estate in which he was created. But this building is fitly framed together in a different Covenant Head, the Lord from heaven, the second Adam; it will never break down. There is also life in this building. Where there is growth there is life. Even in the herbs of the field there is life, and therefore they grow. There is life in man, and he grows from childhood to manhood. And so from new-born babes the family of God grow up unto Him who is the Head, till they come unto the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus; and when they attain to that height, God removes them from the nursery, and sets them amongst His princes in heaven. The apostle now turns to those to whom he writes, and says, “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit.” Ah! my friends, is this true of us? When we read in the Scriptures the privileges of God’s people, that they are a building of God, can we apply this to ourselves? Ah! the day of trial will come—it is hastening on—but now is the day of our opportunity; this is “the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
This spiritual house is the habitation of God Himself. At the consecration of the temple, Solomon said that the heaven of heavens could not contain God, and how much less that house which he had built? But what is really, outside heaven, the habitation of God? Ah, He says, “Though heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool, yet I will dwell with him who is poor and contrite in heart, and who trembleth at my word.” If you are a stone in this spiritual building, God dwells in your heart. He not only dwells in His church as a whole, but He dwells in the heart of every member of His church. What a wondertul thing, what a mystery it is, that God would create man to be a habitation for Himself, and when the house was destroyed by sin, that He would, of His own mere good pleasure, grace and mercy, begin to re-build the fallen house, and to make it more beautiful and better in every respect than it was before it broke down! When God creates a person anew in Christ Jesus, it is with the object that He may dwell in his heart. I appeal to you, my friends, have you found God in your soul at any time? However it may be with you, it is true of believers, that God is not only above them in heaven, and around them—God is everywhere—but He is also in them; in a spiritual sense, He dwells in their souls. They are a temple of God, and so the temple was a type of Christ’s human nature, and a type of the Church also.
In conclusion, let those who have received tokens that they are the children of God, walk carefully; let them not lose sight of their covenant with God; let them walk humbly; and seek to walk like Enoch and Noah, of whom it is written that they walked with God. Let them be afraid of sin outside themselves and of sin in their own hearts. God’s people are making progress towards the heavenly Canaan, towards the house above; and there is nothing so dangerous to them as sin. The sinfulness of their nature makes them mourn like Ephraim of old, and they feel their need of the redemption wrought out by Christ. They appreciate the doctrine of salvation by grace. Speak to those who have found out their need of Christ, of salvation by works, and they say, “Ah! there is no hope for us there.” But preach to them salvation by grace, and they cry, with hope and joy, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of God.” Let them glorify God with their bodies and spirits, which are His, and show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. The Lord add His blessing, and to His name be the praise. Amen.