In Him, that is, in Christ, in Whom we have also obtained an inheritance, being marked out beforehand according to the purpose of Him Who works all things according to the counsel of His own will.
Who serve the representation and shadow of heavenly things, according as Moses was divinely instructed when about to make the tabernacle: “See,” said He, “that thou makest all things according to the pattern which was shown to thee on the mountain.”
According to all that I shall show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.
And David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasures thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner chambers thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit.
“All this,” said David, “in writing by the Lord’s hand upon me, instructing as to all the works of the pattern.”
As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, even as ye were taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Take heed lest there shall be anyone that maketh spoil of you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for giving Thy Word to us. We know that Thy Word is truth, and Thy Word is life and spirit.
So, dear Lord, we ask that Thy Holy Spirit, Who alone can interpret Thy Word, Who alone can translate Thy Word into Thy Person, will breathe again upon Thy written Word and make it living and operative in our lives.
Dear Lord, we want to bow before Thy Word. We want to give ourselves to the working of Thy Spirit. Thou alone canst bring us into the reality of Thy Word, and we just cast ourselves upon Thee, trusting and believing that Thou wilt do it.
It is all to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We mentioned yesterday morning that the focus of our attention in the morning will be on that one word: build. Our Lord Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
The work of our Lord Jesus is to build His church. He said, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” And what is this work that the Father has been working and the Son continues to work? We believe that it is the work of building His church.
So we can see how important this matter of the building of the church is to God the Father and to our Lord Jesus the Son.
I think, brothers and sisters, that in our days, especially during the last year, as I travel around, I discover that among God’s people there is an increasing interest, or concern, in this matter of the building of the church.
It seems as if everywhere God’s people are asking this question: “How can the church be built? Is the church being built?” I believe there is a reason behind it. I believe the Spirit of God is moving among His people, preparing for the return of our Lord Jesus.
Why is it that, for so long—twenty centuries—He still has not come? Brothers and sisters, we ask and we pray, “Lord, why do You delay?” God’s people are crying everywhere, but it seems as if heaven still retains Him.
I think one of the main reasons is because the church is not yet built. The Bridegroom cannot return if the bride is still not ready.
In one sense, we think we are waiting for Him; but in a real sense, He is waiting for us. Not until the bride has made herself ready will the Bridegroom come.
So I feel this matter of the building of the church is of such tremendous importance in these very last days. The church has to be built in order that Christ can return and receive the church as His own bride.
So, dear brothers and sisters, do consider this matter of the building of the church as our chief concern during these remaining days of our life.
We mentioned yesterday morning that when you think of this matter of building, the first mention of that word is found in Genesis 2:22. God took something out of the side of Adam, built it into a woman, and then led the woman to the man.
In that first mention of the word build, you can discover all the main principles involved in this matter of building. First of all, before you build anything, there is a purpose.
Then, when you build something of significance, you need to have a blueprint—a pattern. With a pattern, you begin to prepare the materials and gather them together. Then comes the process of turning these raw materials into finished form, into a building.
Finally, after the building is finished, it serves a purpose. So there is presentation. During these mornings, this is what we would like to consider together before the Lord.
Yesterday morning we considered the matter of purpose. When you think of the church, it is not a small thing.
Because even before the ages, before there was time, before there was space, before God created the heavens and the earth, God had already purposed a purpose in Christ Jesus.
And He purposed that purpose according to the good pleasure of His will. In other words, it pleased Him. It pleased Him to have this purpose, and He purposed it in His Son and for His Son.
We mentioned yesterday morning that He loved His Son so much that He wanted to express His love toward His Son. Of all the gifts that He could give to His Son, the best of all—the one that really answers the very heart of His Son—is the church.
So, brothers and sisters, you find that the origin of the church is far back in eternity past, and it is in the very heart of God. If this is the case, immediately we understand how significant, how important, and how glorious is the building of the church.
This morning we would like to share on the second point, which is pattern. If you want to build anything of significance, you cannot simply have an idea and then start to do it. You need to lay down a plan.
If you do not have the technical knowledge, you engage an architect. You tell the architect what you have in mind: what kind of building you want and what purpose that building will serve.
After the architect has heard your thoughts, he will, with his technical knowledge, put your thoughts into a blueprint, into a pattern. Then, after the pattern is settled, you begin to build.
If that is the way man builds, how much more must it be the way our God builds His church? The Bible tells us that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways, as the heavens are above the earth.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we think about something and plan something, we are always limited by ourselves. We are earthly. But God is in heaven, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are much higher than our ways.
So, in the building of the church, God not only conceived a thought, a purpose, but He also laid down a plan before He does anything. This is what Ephesians 1:11 means when it says that He works all things according to the counsel of His will.
He purposed according to the good pleasure of His will; then, after He purposed something, He laid down a counsel, a plan, as to how to carry out that which He had purposed. We believe that when God does anything, He always does it according to the plan He has laid down.
We mentioned yesterday that even when God said, “I will make Adam a help meet for him,” after God had decided to do that, He was looking for a pattern. That is why you find that He led all these living creatures to Adam.
Adam looked at all these living creatures. Was it that God only wanted Adam to name them? There must be something more than that. God led these creatures before Adam so that Adam might choose whether he could find his help meet, his counterpart, something that would answer fully to his heart’s desire.
In other words, God used the law of elimination. God already knew what the pattern would be, but Adam did not know it, and God wanted Adam to go through the test.
It would have been a tragedy if Adam had said, “Well, I will have to take what is there—not the best.” God created everything after its own kind. God does not like hybrids.
Thank God, Adam did not simply give in and say, “Well, anything will be all right.” He could not find his help meet. So God put Adam to sleep and took something out of Adam.
Our Bible translates it “rib,” but in the original it really means something out of Adam. God took something out of Adam, and with that something God built the woman.
In other words, when God built the woman, Adam—the man—was the pattern. Because of this, you find the two are exactly alike and can be united back into one.
In all God’s workings, God always works according to a pattern.
For instance, when God took the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Sinai and told them, “Make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.”
You know, brothers and sisters, God’s original desire in creating man is that He may dwell among men. He wants man to be His house, His home.
In Isaiah 66, God said, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; but where is the house that ye will build unto Me?” In other words, the heavens and the earth are God’s office, but where is God’s home? Where will He dwell?
His desire is to dwell among men. “Make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.” God is holy. He cannot dwell directly, as it were, among the children of Israel. He could only dwell among them through a sanctuary.
Now we know that Moses learned all the learning of Egypt. Egypt at that time was a great nation, noted for its architecture. Even today, you go to Egypt and see the pyramids there. These pyramids are architectural marvels.
Even in those early days, they had the skill and knowledge to build tremendous buildings. Moses was mighty in word and deed. He learned all the learning of Egypt. In a sense, he was a great architect, a great builder, an empire builder.
When God said, “Build Me a tabernacle, that I may dwell among you,” this would have been a very simple task for Moses. Probably he would have said, “Lord, fine. I will build You one that will really glorify Your name.” Then he would have started to lay down the plan, draw the blueprint, and build it.
But strangely, God told Moses everything about the building of the tabernacle. He gave Moses a detailed blueprint—the pattern on the mountain.
He showed Moses the whole tabernacle: not only its form and size, but even the materials, the colors, the shape of every utensil, and the way of worshiping in the sanctuary. God did not leave anything to Moses or allow Moses to put his own idea into it.
This is God’s sanctuary. This is a house in which God would dwell, and He alone would plan for it. He would not allow Moses to change it.
He warned Moses again and again, “Do everything according to the pattern that I showed you on the mountain.”
Now, brothers and sisters, we know that Moses was the faithful servant of God. He was faithful in all God’s house. In what sense was he faithful? In the sense that he did everything according to the command of God.
He did not, he dared not, and he would not put his own idea into the sanctuary. He followed exactly, in every detail, what God had shown him in the pattern. That was his faithfulness.
Because of this, you remember in Exodus 40 that when the tabernacle was built, erected, and all the utensils were placed in their proper places, the glory of God filled that place. In other words, God took that place as His sanctuary.
The same thing is true after the children of Israel entered into the promised land. For hundreds of years, God still lived in a tent, not until David became king.
David loved God so much. He was a man after God’s own heart, and he had the thought of building God a permanent temple.
Even though God did not allow him to build because he was a man of war and had shed too much blood, David’s desire was precious to God. That temple had to represent God; it had to be a symbol of peace.
God knew David’s heart, how he loved God and loved the house of God. So God showed the pattern of the temple to David by God’s Spirit.
God’s hand was upon David. In other words, God’s hand was upon David’s hand and guided it in drawing the blueprints. It was God Who drew the blueprint.
Solomon was the wisest of all men because he asked God for one thing. Instead of asking for riches, power, or other things, he asked God for an understanding heart. In other words, he wanted to understand God and God’s will.
Because of this, he was the wisest of all men. His wisdom was expressed in building the temple. He built the temple exactly according to the pattern that God showed to his father David. That was the wisdom of Solomon.
So, brothers and sisters, wherever God lays His hand upon something to build it, He always first has a pattern. Then He works according to the counsel of His will, according to the pattern exactly, until the work is finished. Only then can the finished work be accepted by Him.
In the building of Eve, in the building of the tabernacle, and in the building of the temple, these are all types. The Bible says these are shadows. They are not the eternal reality.
But even these shadows had to be exact according to the real image, according to reality. God warned them again and again that everything must be done according to the pattern.
If this is the case, how much more important it is when God is building an eternal reality—the church.
But today, when you mention this matter of the church, people ask, “Does the building of the church have a pattern?” Probably, in the mind of most people, they think of the church as a product of history. In other words, the church has no pattern.
In the beginning, when the one hundred and twenty people in the upper room were baptized in one Spirit into one body, and on the same day three thousand were added to that body of Christ, they simply met together.
There was no program. There was no organization. They met together, broke bread from house to house, and, when they needed to gather in larger numbers, they went to Solomon’s porch. There, in that open place, they sang, prayed, and fellowshipped. Everything was so primitive.
Then gradually, as the result of history, they began to become a little more organized. There were many people, and though they were all Jews, there were Hebrew Jews and Hellenistic Jews.
Some Jews had been born and reared in the promised land, while others had been born and reared in Gentile cities. The Hellenistic Jews had Greek culture, yet God brought these Hebrew Jews and Hellenistic Jews together and joined them into one body.
But before long, a problem arose. Those in responsibility were Hebrew Jews, and they knew the conditions of the brothers and sisters who lived in Jerusalem and Judea.
In the supply for the widows, they neglected the widows of the Hellenistic Jews because they did not know their real condition. There was murmuring among them.
Thank God, He gave them wisdom. They said, “We need to have seven men, full of the Holy Spirit and of good report, to take care of the tables, so that we can devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”
So seven persons were chosen to take care of the tables. Today we call them deacons. Then, gradually, it developed further. Later on, even in Jerusalem, you find elders.
Then the church began to spread. As it spread and increased, gradually more organization was brought in.
When you come to the fourth century, Constantine the Great made Christianity an acceptable religion. It became fashionable to join the so-called church, and thousands upon thousands flocked into it.
Those soldiers, if they were willing to be baptized, would receive money and government positions. Who would not do it? During that time, most of the people in the church were unsaved. Their background was heathen, and they still longed for their festivals and heathen feasts.
In order to cater to their desires, all these so-called Christian festivals came into view. The birthday of the sun god became Christmas, because they said Christ is the Sun of righteousness. Very clever.
Brothers and sisters, you find more and more organization coming in. Very soon, bishops no longer functioned simply as elders of local churches; they began to rule dioceses. Then came archbishops, cardinals, and the pope.
In other words, you find the church beginning to develop and develop until it became a nation, a country above countries, a world empire. It is a matter of history.
Some people were not happy with that. They began to branch off, and you have all these different denominations and organizations, with different emphases and different focuses.
So people say, “The church does not have a pattern. It is just the product of history. We cannot go back to the primitive condition of the first century to build a church. We are in the twenty-first century. It is progressive, and we have to go on.”
Brothers and sisters, in the minds of many people today, the church is patterned after the world. As the world changes, the church changes.
Even in our time, the so-called church is worked according to the principles of the world. To be a pastor of a big church, you need executive ability because you are ruling an empire. It becomes more important than having the living Word of God.
The church is patterned after the world, like a great organization, a big company, a big corporation. Instead of the world imitating the church, the church follows the way of the world.
Why? Because we think that there is no pattern from God. We have to draw our own blueprints in order to build a church. Of course, what we have built is the tower of Babel.
Others say that the church has no pattern but should be built according to the ingenuity of man—the wisdom of man to build a church according to the time and according to the need.
If you want to find a pattern, they say, perhaps you have to go back into tradition. Someone with wisdom and ability invents something or lays down rules, regulations, ways, and techniques as to how to build a church.
As time goes on, those who follow simply follow the tradition of the fathers. That is the way the church is built.
As in Judaism, you find that they followed the traditions of the fathers. In the beginning, it was a living faith. When the children of Israel gathered at Mount Sinai and God gave His Ten Commandments to them, it was the living Word of God.
At that time, it was a living faith. But as the years went on, people began to ask, “What do You mean by keeping the Sabbath? God said, ‘Keep the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, do no work.’ What do You mean by work? What is work?”
Then these wise rabbis, through the centuries, began to explain what work meant. Their explanations were explained again by rabbis in succeeding generations.
So word upon word was added until it became a huge tradition. It stifled and buried the Word of God, the commandment of God.
At the time of Christ, that is what Christ said: “You follow the traditions of men, and the commandment of God is buried by mountains of tradition.”
In the Gospels, they were always complaining, murmuring, and criticizing our Lord because they said He was breaking the Sabbath. On the Sabbath He healed and did good things, and they said that He had violated the Sabbath. Because of this, they wanted to get rid of Him.
How strong was the tradition of men.
Brothers and sisters, the church has followed the same footsteps as Judaism. In a sense, we find that Christianity has become more and more Judaized.
In Judaism there are several things that are prominent and absolutely necessary. First, you need to have a place of worship: Jerusalem, the temple.
Even after Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the Jewish people were taken captive into Babylon, they still wanted to worship God. Thank God, by taking them into a land of idol worship, He healed them of their idol worship.
But they could not go back to Jerusalem. There was no temple there. So what did they do? The Jewish people are very clever. One of the most ingenious things they invented was the synagogue.
If you have ten men of leisure—not meaning men with no jobs, but men willing to devote time to religious purposes—you can organize a synagogue.
You can organize a synagogue according to what you want. You can get people of like mind, the same ideas, the same opinions, perhaps the same temperament or the same trade, and organize a synagogue.
In the synagogue, you can read the Torah, the five books of Moses. You can read the prophets, pray to God, and sing songs. There was much liberty in the synagogue because people were allowed to share and fellowship.
You remember when Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue, they were asked to speak. There was lots of freedom. The only thing they could not do was sacrifice. According to the law, without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
So in Judaism, you need a place of worship—the temple or synagogue. Outside of the place, there is no worship.
You need a set of rules and regulations. You need a form of worship: ritual and ceremony. You need a special class of people trained to worship.
Now, brothers and sisters, if you look at Christianity today, do you see any difference?
That building on the corner of the square is called a place of worship, as if, aside from that place, you cannot worship. If you want to worship God, go to that place. This is the place of worship.
Every Christian organization must have a creed. There must be a program of worship. There must be someone, or some people, specially trained to lead worship.
Is it not that Christianity has Judaized?
I remember when I was a boy, I was raised in a Methodist church. The Methodist church had a place of worship, a creed called the Discipline, a program, and a pastor.
But even so, you find that the pastors did not wear special garments with all these things hanging there at different festivals. But today, what a difference. More and more, you find Christianity becoming Judaized.
How can you have a church worship without a choir? Where does the idea of a choir come from? Do you find that in the New Testament?
It was David who started that choir: special people trained to worship. Even today, when you want to worship, you have a special group of people leading worship with music.
Is it not that we are turning more and more into Judaism? I believe this is a tendency in Christianity today: the tradition of men. And how strong is that tradition?
Thank God, I think it was in the 1960s that there was a movement in the world: “We want a New Testament church. We will build a New Testament church.”
In other words, they wanted to find the pattern in the New Testament instead of in the Old Testament. That was a great improvement.
So where can you find the pattern of a New Testament church? Naturally, you go to the Book of Acts because that was the beginning of the church. You go to the Book of Acts and try to find a pattern there.
But unfortunately, what you are looking for is the technical side of the church instead of seeing that the church is spiritual, that the church is life, and that the church is heavenly.
When we look into the Book of Acts, because we are so earthly, worldly, and natural, even when we go into the New Testament all we look for is the technical side—the technology of it.
We find, “Well, if you want to organize a church, of course you want elders. Without elders, there is no ruling, no authority in the church.”
Then, according to the New Testament, the elders should be plural. There should not be one person who is the elder or the presiding elder. There is no such thing in the Bible.
Eldership is always plural. Why? Because Christ is the Head of the church. No one person can represent Christ as the Head. There must be more than one so that no one will take the place of Christ as Head of the church. Christ is still the Head of the church.
So you have elders in plural number—at least two. Then, of course, with the elders, you need some deacons and deaconesses. With the deacons and deaconesses, you have the congregation.
I sometimes say that if you have ten persons and want to organize a church, make two elders, three deacons, and five in the congregation, and you have a complete New Testament church.
Today we laugh at it, but in those days it was serious. People really thought they had found the New Testament pattern. But unfortunately, it did not work.
Why, brothers and sisters? I think there is a basic misunderstanding, or a lack of understanding. We do not really understand the nature of the church.
What is the nature of the church? The nature of the church is heavenly. It is spiritual. It is of life.
You remember when Peter was on the roof. He was hungry, praying, and was given a vision. He saw a sheet coming down from heaven. It was heavenly, but it touched the earth.
In the sheet were all kinds of four-footed creatures and creeping things. God said, “Peter, rise, kill and eat.” Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common and unclean.”
God said, “What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.” It happened three times because tradition was so strong in Peter. Then the sheet was lifted back into heaven.
That is what the church is. It is from heaven. It is heavenly in nature, but it touches the earth. It reaches down to all the unclean.
Thank God, we are unclean, but cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb. We ought to have fellowship one with another. Do not consider anyone unclean whom Christ has received. Whom Christ has received, we receive.
But remember, on earth it is only a testimony. It will be received back to heaven. This is what the church is. That is the nature of the church.
So, dear brothers and sisters, if you want to find the pattern of the church, we believe there is a pattern. If God had a pattern for shadows and representations, how much more will God have a pattern in the reality, in the real thing.
But where can you find the pattern? Where is the pattern? What is the pattern for the building of the church?
The Lord said, “I will build My church.” When He builds the church, according to what pattern does He build it?
Brothers and sisters, it is really not far from us. It is right before us.
When you open the New Testament, you come to the reality, because in the fullness of time Christ came. What do you find? First, you have the four Gospels.
What are the four Gospels? The four Gospels give us a picture of Christ viewed from four directions. In the Gospels, you have the story of our Lord Jesus while He was on earth.
He began to speak and to act in the body that He received from the virgin Mary. In that body, He declared the Father. In that body, He accomplished the work of redemption.
So in the four Gospels you see Christ: a living Person, a heavenly Person, a spiritual Person.
Then you have the Book of Acts. Luke said that when he wrote the first treatise—the Gospel according to Luke—he told us what Christ began to do and teach.
But now he is writing the second treatise. What is the second treatise, the Book of Acts? It is the continuation of the speaking and working of the same Christ, but in a different body.
The Word became flesh, incarnate, full of grace and truth. We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
Then, after He ascended, on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down. In one Spirit, the one hundred and twenty were baptized into one body.
In other words, Christ ascended to be the Head, and He took upon Himself a mystical body, a corporate body—the church. In that body, He continued to live, continued to work, and continued to speak. That is the Book of Acts. That is the church.
So, brothers and sisters, what is the pattern of the church? The pattern of the church is the living Christ. Christ, as revealed in the four Gospels, is the pattern, and the church is built according to Him.
In Colossians 2, we find that we should not be misled into thinking that we work according to man or according to the elements of the world. The church is built according to Christ.
It is not technical. It is living—changing from glory to glory, transforming, conforming to the image of Christ. That is the pattern of the church.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God that in building the church, He has Christ, His beloved Son, as the pattern. Everything is to be built according to Him.
We have to be built up in Him and rooted in Him. In other words, it must be Christ and nothing else. That is what the church is.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12, we read:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
Oftentimes, when we read that verse, if we are careless, it may not mean anything to us. But if we are careful, immediately we notice something unusual.
The body is one, though it has many members. The members are many, but there is one body. So also is the church—or so we might expect it to say.
But the Bible says, “So also is Christ.” The Holy Spirit says, “So also is the Christ.” In other words, the church is the Christ because it is built exactly according to Christ.
There can be no deviation, no departure, no change, no alteration, no mixture, and no foreign elements. Everything in the church is Christ.
Brothers and sisters, therefore the building of the church is a spiritual thing. It is a spiritual work. It is a heavenly work. It is exclusively of life.
The more we know the Lord, the more we are changed. The church grows in stature.
In Ephesians 5, Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. He sanctifies her, purifies her by the washing of water with the Word, so that the church may be a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish, to be presented to Him as His bride.
Brothers and sisters, when the church is built, what do you see? You see Christ. Everything is Christ.
That is why, in Ephesians 1:23, the church is called “His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Nothing more, nothing less.
If this is the pattern, brothers and sisters, how spiritual, how heavenly, and how living is the church!
God warned again and again, “Build everything according to the pattern shown on the mountain.” Oh, brothers and sisters, how we need to see this.
It would deliver us from anything that is merely technical. Today, when people talk about the building of the church, it is all technology. That is the wrong direction.
The building of the church is intensely spiritual. That is why we have to be spiritual. The building of the church is intensely heavenly. Nothing earthly can be added to it.
The building of the church is exclusively the life of Christ in each one of us. His life is the building block—nothing else.
How glorious, when the church is built, it is His life. Our Lord said, “This is bone of My bones, and flesh of My flesh.”
Oh, brothers and sisters, does this warm your heart? Does it give you that longing that we may not in any way work against God, but by His grace may work with Him?
Dear heavenly Father, what Thou hast purposed for Thy beloved Son is so glorious that nothing can be patterned after but Thy beloved Son Himself.
O Lord, do open our inner eyes to see it, that we may not be so foolish as if we are able to build our church. O Lord, give us an understanding heart.
That we may see Thee as our pattern. May Thy Holy Spirit work in each one of us according to that pattern and bring us together according to that pattern.
Lord, our heart’s desire is that Thou shalt have that church for Thy beloved Son. We ask in that precious name. Amen.