The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Church Planting in CanaanSunday, October 25th, 2026Twenty-Second Sunday After PentecostChrist Covenant Church – Centralia, WAGenesis 12:1–9
Prayer
O Heavenly Father, we thank you for the example of our spiritual father Abraham, who sojourned in the land of Canaan, who forsook all to follow You, and because of his patience and faith, received the promised inheritance, not in this life, but in the life that is to come. Grant us to imitate his great faith, which is faith in Your Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God forever, Amen.
Introduction
4,000 years ago, Noah died. And two years after Noah’s death, Abram was born. Noah died in 1998 BC. And Abram was born to Terah in 1996 BC.
Now a couple weeks ago we studied Genesis 11 and the building of the tower of Babel. And we saw how men conspired together to dethrone the Most High God.
How did God respond? He responded graciously, by coming down and scattering the tongues and languages of men.
Now as we come to Genesis 12, and the call of Abram, about 320 years have passed since that Babel event. And we find that Abram is living in Haran (500 miles north of Babylon), and with Abram, God is going to begin a new building project, which is the building of Christ’s kingdom.
God has placed Genesis 11 and Genesis 12 right next to each other, to show us this difference between man’s way of exalting himself and building a kingdom against God, and God’s ways of exalting man to sit down next to Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). God’s kingdom is built through humility, obedience, and patient faith in God’s promise. As it says in Zechariah 4:6, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, Saith the Lord of hosts.
At Babel, man tried to make his own name great, but to Abram what does God say? I will make your name great.
At Babel, man refused to leave his own country and kin. Instead of spreading out on the earth, he tried to build a world city (the first globalist empire against God). But to Abram God says, leave your country, leave your kindred, leave your father’s house, forsake your blood and soil, and go to a new land that I will show you.
At Babel man tried to build a monument for posterity, a name which would not be forgotten. But where are the names of those builders today? Instead, their memory is an unfinished tower, forever testifying to their pride and folly.
What does God build with and through Abram? God builds from him a great nation (many nations in fact), principally a holy nation and a royal priesthood. And through his loins, and the barren womb of Sarah, would come the promised redeemer and seed, the God-man Christ Jesus.
Paul says in Galatians 3:16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
So Christ is the ultimate means by which blessing comes to Abram and all humanity. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that in Christ Jesus, all the promises of God find their Yes and Amen.
And so if you have the faith of Abram, which is faith in Christ, then you are an heir together with him. And just as Abram had to trust God, and wait patiently, and endure long trials, hoping against hope, so also must you in your own day.
And so on this final morning, of us worshipping here together in this building, I want us to consider how God builds his kingdom through the faith and patience of His saints.
Outline of the Text
Our text divides into three sections:
In verses 1-3, God issues a command and promises a blessing.
In verses 4-6, Abram obeys and departs to Canaan.
In verses 7-9, God appears to Abram, and Abram builds two altars for worship.
So God commands and promises a blessing, Abram obeys and departs, and then God appears to Abram, and Abram builds a place for worship.
Verses 1-3 – God gives a command and promises a blessing
1Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Here we have a command followed by a promise. The command is to leave at least four things behind:
1. Abram must leave his own country/land
2. He must say goodbye to his kindred and extended relatives,
3. He must leave his father’s house, which we are told in Joshua 24:2 was a house of idolatry.
And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.
Abram was to forsake his father’s gods and idolatrous ways.
4. And then fourth, Abram must relinquish the security and control that he presently has over his own life. God tells him to go, but God does not yet tell him all the details about where to go, and for how long, and if he will ever get to settle down anywhere. Abram has to trust God, and trust the very limited information God gives to him at this stage.
It says of this scene in Hebrews 11:8, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Isn’t this how God so often works in our lives? He gives us clear commands that we must obey and promises blessings if we do, and yet He leaves out so many particulars that we think are essential to know.
God gives Abram a command without giving him a precise destination. The command is Leave, but where to, he is not yet told.
And so you can imagine the greatness of Abram’s faith here. Because Abram has to go have one of those awkward conversations with his wife later that evening.
“Honey, the Lord spoke to me, and He told us we need to leave.
Leave what?
Not much, just our land, our family, my father’s house.
Uhm. Okay. Where are we going?
Great question. I don’t know. He didn’t tell me that. But get this, He promised me a great blessing if we obey. Oh yeah?
He said, I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
What did Sarai think of all this? We are not told. But this is a staggering promise that is tied to a kind of scary command. Leave all that is familiar to you, and go somewhere unknown. All you’ve got to go on at this point, is the word of God. Is that enough?
Well as risky or scary or thrilling as this might be (depending on your temperament), this is also what Jesus says to every person who would follow him. Isn’t this what God is still saying to you today?
Jesus says in Luke 14:26-30, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
So have you counted the cost, of leaving all so you can follow Jesus and actually reach the finish line (dying in faith)? Well then you too must in spirit and in truth, forsake this world, forsake the sins of your father’s house, forsake the devil and all his works, forsake your family and relatives, and anything that would hinder you from obeying Jesus completely.
Jesus leaves no room in his kingdom for divided loyalties. You cannot serve God and mammon, no man can have two masters, Jesus says. Eventually God will separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares.
And so have you truly forsaken this world, for the sake of Christ? Can you honestly say with the Apostle Paul, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Chris (Phil 3:7-8).
Abram forsook all to follow and gain Jesus Christ and his resurrection glory. And so must you, if you would be called a true son of Abraham.
Now in verses 4-6 we are given a brief description of Abram’s departure.
Verses 4-6 – Abram obeys God’s command and departs to Canaan.
4So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
6And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
What do you expect to be doing when you are 75 years old? Some of you are older than 75, and here you are. Did you imagine your life would turn out this way? Whatever Abram’s plans might have been, it was probably not leaving everything behind and start a new life on the road.
Recall Abram and his wife are childless, and they have been childless their entire marriage, with all the griefs, sorrows, and disappointments that that would cause. We learn later in Genesis that both of them are fairly resigned to this hard providence, and so Eliezer of Damascus, an adopted servant is the heir.
And so Abram and Sarai are beginning a new life that is founded solely on the Word of God, and not on anything they can presently see. In fact, what they see, and what they know about themselves, appears to run exactly contrary to the promises God has made to them. How will this seed come?
Abram and Sarai are childless. Sarai has a barren womb. And yet God has spoken. God has promised to bless them, and make them a blessing to the whole world. And if God can create the world out of nothing, by the word of His power, then with God, all things are possible.
Now together with Abram and Sarai who else is with them? Hundreds more than are presently in this room.
For starters there is Lot, who is Abram’s nephew. And as nice as it might be to some kindred leave with him, Lot will be the cause of some grief to Abram a couple chapters later. Abram will have to go to war and kill people to rescue him.
In Genesis 14 we are told that Abram had 318 household servants trained for war. And if those men had families, and children or grandchildren of their own, this could easily have been a caravan of well over 1,000 people (some think much larger).
These servants and their families are what verse 5 calls, the souls that they had gotten in Haran.Abram is a kind of civil magistrate, a sheik, or chieftain, not merely a private individual.
And in Genesis 17 God includes all these household servants, who have zero biological relationship to Abram in the covenant of circumcision. In fact, God makes it a command, that if anyone is not circumcised in Abram’s household, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant (Gen. 17:14).
And so loyalty to Abram meant loyalty to Abram’s God, and that mean all the males, including the servants, and the servant’s children, received the covenant sign of circumcision.
And so notice, from the very beginning, the covenant people of God are not limited to a single bloodline. It included non-biological descendants of Abraham, who had no Abrahamic blood in their veins. And this is just one of the many reasons why the New Testament condemns the Jews for all their boasting in the flesh, boasting in their lineage.
Because who is a true son of Abraham? Who is a true Jew?
I know the CKA kids can answer this because they just memorized Romans 2:28-29, For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
And so even before God called Abram out of Haran, he was already winning souls from those around him. So much so that they were willing to fight for Abram and be circumcised as grown men. That takes some measure of faith!
Abram was what we could call, an evangelist, a church planter. “Apostle to the Canaanites” is a title we could give him. He had been doing this in Haran, and now God is promising to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. A promise that belongs to all of us who keep covenant with Christ.
Finally, in verses 7-9, the Lord appears to Abram, and starts to give him some of those details about the land he did not previously have.
Verses 7-9 – God appears to Abram
7And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
8And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
9And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Now in your bulletin you can see this illustrated on the map. Abram left Haran and went south about 400 miles to Shechem. And it is at Shechem that God appears to him, and says, Unto thy seed will I give this land.
Now Abram does not yet know how this will happen, or when it will happen, he is only told that it will happen. And in response to this promise of a seed to inherit the land, Abram builds an altar unto the Lord.
He does the same thing 20 miles south, between Bethel and Ai, and in the next chapter, after his exodus from Egypt, he will build an altar at Hebron (35 miles south of Bethel).
So at 75 years old, Abram is a traveling evangelist, calling upon God, and building altars of worship throughout a land that God has promised him, but which is presently inhabited by Canaanites.
And it is significant that Abram builds 2 altars then a third, because the law says, in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word/matter shall be established (Deut. 19:15, Matt. 18:16).
So an altar is a confirmatory sign, a memorial of witness, a place for sacrificial worship unto the true and living God. This is Abram’s way of planting a flag in the ground, and putting the Canaanites on notice, that their land belongs to Christ, the seed of the woman, who shall crush the serpent’s head.
Now how long does it take for these promises to be fulfilled? How long until those humble altars of earth, become the literal geographic inheritance of Abram’s offspring? Over 400 years.
And this is where faith must be married with patience and hope. Because God tells Abram in Genesis 15:13-16, “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs [referring to Egypt], and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age [he will die at 175 years old]. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
And Stephen the Martyr says in Acts 7:5, God gave him no inheritance in [the land], not even enough to set his foot on.
And so do you have same patience and faith as Abraham? Is your heart set on earthly things, or heavenly things? This world, or the world to come?
It says in Hebrews 11:9-16, By faith [Abraham] dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God…These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return [that is to Shechem, and Bethel, Ai and Hebron]. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Conclusion
What is God commanding of you today? What has God promised to those who love Him? What is God calling Christ Covenant Church to be in this community?
He is calling you to forsake the world, the flesh, and the devil.
He is calling you to live in hope of that heavenly country, that celestial city, that worldwide inheritance that Jesus Christ died to secure.
Abram built altars for worship on earth, because by them he could lead the Canaanites, and lead his household, into the true and heavenly promised land. And this is what we are doing when we start churches, when we build Christian households, and preach the good news of forgiveness in Jesus, to our neighbors and all who will hear.
We are announcing to them that Jesus Christ is LORD, and Chehalis is Christ’s possession. There may be Canaanites in the land, but their days are numbered. And by God’s grace, those unbelievers shall be converted and subdued to King Jesus.
This is all signified by the first man named Jesus in the Bible, you probably know him as Joshua (which is the Hebrew name for Jesus), who living 400 years after God’s promise to Abram, conquered Shechem, Bethel, Ai, Hebron, and divided the land to Abram’s descendants.
And so I charge dear saints of God, as God charged Joshua before he took the land, Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
And so may He, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Babel & The City of GodSunday, October 11th, 2026Twentieth Sunday After PentecostChrist Covenant Church – Centralia, WAGenesis 11:1–9, Ezekiel 48:30–35
Prayer
O Father, we thank You for the revelation of Your Son, who by his death and resurrection has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, to create in Himself one new man from the scattered and divided tribes of the earth, thus making peace. Grant us this peace, as Your kingdom advances, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
How many acres of land do you own? Zero acres? Maybe you rent. Half and acre. 5 acres. 100 acres. More?
What if God gave you 50 square miles of land, that is 32,000 acres? What would you do with it? How would you organize, divide, and arrange that land so that people would want to live there? Where would you build the city? What would you call it? Where would you put the farmland, the forests, the pasture, the houses, the neighborhoods, and the grocery stores? How would you write the zoning laws for what could be built and where?
In the two passages I just read, Genesis 11 and Ezekiel 48, we have two competing visions for what a land and a city should be.
On one hand there is the Babel Vision, with a tall tower that stretches up towards heaven. And then there is Ezekiel’s Vision, where heavenly blueprints descend down to earth, and God shows us how He arranges 50 square miles of land around His Holy sanctuary.
If you look at the graphic I have put in your bulletin, there is a central square there, in between the two territories of the Prince. And that square measures about 50 square miles, and just for comparison, that is about the same land mass as all of Tacoma.
That is what is God is showing to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 40-48, and this morning I want to compare and contrast these two rival visions for what society can be. There is the Babelic vision to build a tower and a name for oneself. And then there is God’s Vision, with a sanctuary for true worship from which living waters flow, and then south of that Sanctuary is a city whose name is The LORD is there.
So as we are about to move from one city to another, from Centralia to Chehalis, I want us to consider some of the practical lessons contained here in Genesis 11 and in Ezekiel’s vision.
Outline of the Sermon
In order to set these two rival visions side by side, we are going to ask and answer three questions of each building project, that capture its essence. Those three questions are:
Q1. Where do they build?
Q2. What do they build?
Q3. Why do they build?
So starting with the Babel Project, where was the city and tower of Babel built?
Q1. Where do they build?
We read in Genesis 11:1-2
1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
First recall the context of Genesis 11. It is about 100 years after the flood. God reduced the entire population of the earth down to 8 people, Noah and his family. And after the flood subsides it says in Genesis 9:1, So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”
So God’s charge to Noah has not changed even after the fall, and even after the flood. The commission God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden, is re-commissioned to Noah and His sons as they step out of the ark.
God still wants a world full of image bearers who reflect His Triune glory and who exercise dominion over the earth.God intends for Noah and his sons and their wives to fill the earth with true worshippers of the true God, and to especially not repeat the same wickedness, idolatry, and disobedience that provoked God to flood the earth in the first place.
So the marching orders for this reboot of the human race is: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. That is go out, cultivate the land, plant vineyards, plant gardens, raise cattle, dig in the earth for gold, silver, and precious stones, make tools, make musical instruments and offer all your first fruits to God.
God wants Noah’s descendants to beautify and offer the creation back to God in worship. They are to be good stewards of a new world that has just been washed clean.
Now 100 years go by, and a lot can change in 100 years. Can you imagine living in 1926? It was a different world! And depending on how quickly children were born and spaced, there would only have been perhaps a few thousand people on earth when the tower of Babel was built (estimates range anywhere from 1,000 on the low end to 10,000 at the high end). Whatever the case, when it says in verse 1, the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech, it is describing a world population that is almost certainly less than 10,000 people.
Now we are told in verse 2 that they journeyed from the east and chose to settle in the plain in the land of Shinar (שִׁנְעָ֖ר). This is the where for the city and tower of Babel.
Now what does this name Shinar mean? In Hebrew it means something like shaking teeth, or teeth city. And this word for teeth in Hebrew (Shen) shares a root with the Hebrew word for gate (Shaar). And if you think about it, what are teeth but the gate of the mouth?And this is curious since this whole passage is about man’s mouth and speech and what comes out of it.
In verse 1 it says more literally, the whole earth had one language and one lip. And so there is a lot of Hebrew wordplay going on here as God is about to scatter and divide the proud tongues of men.
So Genesis 11:1-9 is really about man’s mouthy rebellion against the Most High God, and what God does to those who exalt themselves against Him.
So the name Babel, which means confusion, is built in the land of Shinar, shaking teeth.
And perhaps this idea of shaking teeth should remind us of what Jesus says in the gospels. That those who do evil will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the land of Shinar, where the ungodly children of men try to build a city in defiance of God. What Satan tried to do as an angel and fell, so also man now tries to do, and will fall.
What about God’s city in Ezekiel 40-48. Where is that built?
First recall that Ezekiel is seeing everything in a vision. And so really the location of God’s city is in the mind of God. It is in the bosom of the Father who begets the eternal Word, and from which the Holy Spirit of love proceeds. The Triune God is the inheritance, the holy land, the true sanctuary and city, for those who desire eternal life.
As we sing in Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble…There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
Now if you read these chapters in Ezekiel carefully, you will notice that God never tells Ezekiel, He never tells Israel, to build any of what He is showing them. Instead, He tells them to measure it, study it, contemplate its form and its arrangements. As He says in Ezekiel 43:10, Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.
And so God is using earthly geographic structures, forms, buildings, to teach us what it means to be holy as He is holy.
Ezekiel is seeing in a vision, what our father Abraham could only apprehend by faith.
As it says in Hebrews 11:13-16, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better [country], that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
What does God say to Abram in Genesis 15:1, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
So mark this difference between the City of Babel, and the City of God. Babel is city a of man’s fleshly works, where men try to climb up to heaven on their own strength, by their own ingenuity, and proud ambition.
But the City of God is built in heaven, not with human hands, but by Divine hands, and at the end of the history, that heavenly city comes down to earth. And thus Jesus says in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth…Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Heaven and earth are the inheritance of the saints. But you have to aim for heaven by humility and meekness, and then God gives you not only heaven, but earth as well. That is God’s way, and it is opposed to man’s way.
And so I ask you today, Where are you building? Where is your ambition and labor and resources being invested?
The wise mother says to her son in Proverbs 31:3, Do not give your strength to women, Nor your ways to that which destroys kings
And Jesus says in Luke 12:29-32, And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek [first] the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Do you believe this?
This brings us to our second question which is, What do they build?
Q2. What do they build?
We read in Genesis 11:3-4
3And they said one to another, Go to [Come now], let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Notice there are three things that humanity tries to build in Shinar: A city, a tower, and a name.
And here it appears that the city is built for the sake of the tower, and the tower is being built for the sake of making them a name. Together this is how humanity imagines it can reach up to heaven and not spread out upon the earth. Organize, unite, and consolidate our efforts to climb upward. This is ultimately what every man-made false religion tries to do: get to get God on our own terms, climb to God on a rickety ladder of our own making.
God said be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. I will bless you! But they say, “No, let’s all stop here in Shinar, make bricks, and build us a city, a tower, and name for ourselves.” Let us climb up to heaven if we can.
Meanwhile, what does God show to Ezekiel?
God shows him a perfectly square sanctuary, a perfectly square city, a perfectly square land in which city and sanctuary reside, and in that city 12 gates in total, three on four sides, so that all the tribes of Israel are united in service to God.
This is very basic but a square has 4 equal sides. And this signifies the equality, justice, truth, and unity that God’s people and city are to be.
In Ezekiel 45:9-10 it says, Thus saith the Lord God; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God. Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.
Now one of the most significant details that Ezekiel is shown, is that the City is subordinate to the Sanctuary. And this is God’s way of telling us that Worship is of central importance to having a healthy society. The commonwealth, the culture, the city, is literally downstream of the Church. Everything exists for and revolves around the true worship of God. That is what God is picturing for us here (an eccelesiocentric commonwealth).
A second important detail is that City and Sanctuary are in different places. And it was not always this way.
In Solomon’s day, the temple was inside the city, and the king’s house was right next to God’s house, they almost shared a courtyard.
However, the kings of Judah had abused this privilege, they committed idolatry, and profaned the true worship, even transgressing at times the priestly office (King Uzziah does this in 2 Chronicles 26 and God punishes him).
And so in Ezekiel 43 God essentially says to them, we can’t be next door neighbors anymore. You’ve got to learn to distinguish rightly between City and Sanctuary, between Politics and Worship, between your house and God’s House, between the Civil realm and the Church realm.
Jesus Christ is high priest and high king, and ruler over all. But Jesus Christ governs the church in a different way than he governs the world. Jesus governs the church through Word and sacrament, through elders and discipline. And then He governs the world, the land, the city, through civil powers and civil laws. These are distinct jurisdictions, but both under Christ.
As it says in Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
This is just one of the lessons of Ezekiel’s vision and how the land is laid out.
Moreover, notice the city is not called the City of David. Instead, it is named The LORD is there. And so God’s presence is not only in the Church, God is also present in the city of the righteous. In those who are just, equitable, honest, and upright.
What is God building today? He is building his heavenly kingdom through the preaching of the gospel, and temporal cities through the holy lives of His people.
In Ezekiel 47 there is a river of living water that flows from the sanctuary down to the dead sea. And the fountainhead of that river is the body of Jesus, who poured out the Holy Spirt at Pentecost, and who says in John 7:38, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
This is what you Christ Covenant Church is meant to be in Chehalis. Pure water proceeding from a pure heart, speaking pure words, that purify and give life to the dead.
You are called to this supernatural ministry, and to participate with God in His healing of the world.
Finally in closing, we can compare the competing Why’s of all this building.
Q3. Why do they build?
We are told in Genesis 11:4, that Babel was built, not only to make a name for themselves, but also lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And so we observe here at least two sinful motives/reasons for the building of Babel: Pride and Fear.
Pride blinds us and makes us foolish, and fear can do the same.
There is a righteous fear of the LORD, which is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). But there is another fear that arises from disobeying God, where you are afraid of God punishing you. It says of this fear in Proverbs 10:24, The fear of the wicked will come upon him, [but] the desire of the righteous will be granted.
Those who are afraid and have a bad conscience, ultimately have their fears realized. The men of Babel feared being scattered, and yet, that is exactly what happens to them.
The fear of the wicked eventually comes to pass. And so it is better to just obey God the first time, rather than digging in your feet, and erecting a monument to your pride and folly.
As Mary sings in her Magnificat in Luke 1:51-53, He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, And exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; And the rich he hath sent empty away.
In contrast to the pride and fear of Babel, there is the God who builds from sacrificial love.
What will it take for Ezekiel’s visionary city to be realized? It will take nothing less, than the humiliation and death of the Son of God.
Jesus Christ came down from heaven and suffered on the cross for things he was not guilty of. So take whatever injustices you have experienced, and then add to that all the sins of the world.That is what Jesus suffered and endured because He loves sinners, and He loves the glory of His Father.
And so God’s city is built on sacrificial love, it is built on the blood and humility of the cross of Christ.
And so that is how we must build as we move to Chehalis. We must love one another. We must humble ourselves and suffer for one another. We must forgive the people who have hurt us. Because then, and only then, can God say of our city, the name of it is The LORD is There.
May God grant you to see that day, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Anagogical ArchitectureSunday, September 27th, 2026Eighteenth Sunday After PentecostChrist Covenant Church – Centralia, WAEzekiel 43:1–12
Prayer
O Father, we thank You for Your law, that is perfect and converting to the soul. We thank You for Your testimony that is sure and makes wise the simple. Teach us we ask, by the power of Your Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Children, I have a question for you this morning before you start coloring, are you listening?
Have you ever had an idea in your head, or a picture in your head, of something that you wanted to draw? How many of you are good at drawing? How many of you are bad at drawing?
Pastor Ventura is very bad at drawing. But sometimes my children will ask me to draw something for them, usually it’s a dragon, or some kind of excavator or racecar. And I’ll have a perfect picture in my head of that dragon, or that truck, or that Toyota Supra my boys want me to draw them. But then when I go to draw it, my dragon looks more like a goat with flames coming out of its mouth. Or I’ll try to draw Lightning McQueen, but it looks nothing like him. I make him too short, or too fat, or too long. And if I’m drawing on the Magna doodle, my kids sometimes just erase it it’s so bad, and they go and ask Mom to draw for them.
Do you know what it’s like to draw or make something, but then it comes out way worse than what you had hoped? And how does that make you feel? Sad. Frustrated. Disappointed. Angry.
Or let’s say you are playing with Magna-Tiles or building with Legos. And you build something that you think is really cool. But then your big brother, or your little sister comes along, and in just a few minutes they make something twice as big, twice as cool, twice as awesome, and now nobody cares or likes what you made anymore, because what your brother or sister made is so much better.
How would that make you feel? Would you be really happy, or ashamed of yourself?
Well here in God’s Word, in that passage I just read from Ezekiel 43, God is drawing a picture for His people to look at. And it is the picture of a beautiful, glorious, visionary city. And that city He is drawing is way better than anything that they could ever hope to draw or build on their own.
Why is God showing them this city? It is because He wants His people to be ashamed of all the bad ideas and the sinful images that they have in their head, which the Bible calls idolatry. God wants to show His people a holy city, so that they will be ashamed of how not holy they have been. That’s what this section of Ezekiel is all about.
Outline of the Text
Now our text divides into three basic sections, according to three actions of God.
In verses 1-5, God returns to His House and consecrates it. To consecrate means to make holy.
In verses 5-9, God condemns His people for their past unfaithfulness and idolatry. He tells them they need to clean up their act, or they won’t be able to live in His neighborhood anymore.
And in then in verses 10-12,God promises His people a hope-filled future, but only if they are ashamed of their sins.
So God returns to His house, God condemns His people, and then God promises salvation for those who hate their former sins.
So let’s look at our text a little more closely together. Starting in verses 1-5 we see that God returns to His House by entering through the east gate. And if you look at the handout I gave you of Ezekiel’s temple, you can see the east gate is the entrance on the right side of that top diagram.
And if you were to enter through that gate, it would then be a straight shot from the Outer Court to the Inner Court, up the Altar, and then up the stairs into the Holy Place, and then through the doors in the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place where the Throne of the Mercy Seat was. That is the path God shows to Ezekiel here in verses 1-5.
Verses 1-5 – God Returns To His House
1Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:
2And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
3And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face.
4And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
5So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
Now if we had the whole book of Ezekiel in our minds, we would remember that about 19 years earlier, God gave to Ezekiel a vision of His glory, and also a guided tour of Jerusalem and the Temple (rf. Ezekiel 1-11).
And this was a guided tour of all the idolatry, and wickedness, and abominations that God’s people were committing in their minds and hearts, and in public together.
It says in Ezekiel 8:15-18, Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east. And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
And then after this in Ezekiel 9, God starts killing people. And He starts by executing the wicked leaders, the elders in the temple, and then works His way outward from the sanctuary until dead bodies are lying in the streets.
The only people who are spared in this judgment, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Upon them, God places the Hebrew letter tav on their foreheads.
And what does a tav look like? It looks like a cross. Only those who have the cross of Christ engraved upon their minds shall be spared in the judgment. Everyone else shall die in their sins. This is the message of Ezekiel 600 years before the death of Christ.
It says in Ezekiel 9:4-6, And the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.”
And so I ask you this morning people of God, if God’s judgment came upon Christ Covenant Church today, would you be spared? Would you survive? Do you have the mark of the Cross in your forehead, and the Holy Trinity engraved upon your heart, or is their idolatry there?
God’s judgments on His House are not just an Old Testament thing. The Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 4:17-18, For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
So do you take up your cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ with your mind fixed upon Him? Because that is the only sure way of salvation. As it says of the redeemed in Revelation 22:4, And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
So Ezekiel had this vision of God’s glory and judgment, and the desolation of the Temple 19 years ago (around 592 BC). The temple was literally destroyed and burned to the ground by the Babylonians about 6 years later in 586 BC. And ever since then, the faithful have been living in exile, looking to Ezekiel as their priest and prophet near the Chebar river in Babylon.
And this is when God reveals to Ezekiel a vision of His glory returning. Returning to a consecrate a new and more glorious Temple than before. But with that return comes a stern warning and rebuke. This is verses 6-9.
Verses 6-9 – God Condemns His People
6And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me.
7And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.
8In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.
9Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
So these are God’s conditions for living in the same house and neighborhood and city with His people again.
For those of you who live in a neighborhood with an HOA (a Homeowners Association), imagine if the requirements to live in your neighborhood was: You must keep the Ten Commandments.
No other gods. No idolatry. No blasphemy. Must attend worship on the Lord’s Day. Honor your father and mother. No murder. No adultery. No stealing. No lying. No coveting.
Imagine if everyone kept God’s commandments in spirit and in truth. What kind of neighborhood would that be? What kind of city of love, justice, and mercy would exist if God’s people obeyed the Word of God from the heart?
That is God’s message to us today. The reason you cannot have nice things, clean sidewalks, beautiful parks where children can play unsupervised, is because you leave the trash of sin and injustice everywhere you go. You defile God’s city with a perverse mouth and proud lips and a lying tongue. You envy and covet, you steal and you kill. And you think God will let that go unpunished?
No. Have you learned your lesson yet? Do you understand why God destroyed Jerusalem the first time? And will you now repeat the same sins that left the Temple desolate?
God says to His people in verse 9, Now let them put their harlotry and the carcasses of their kings far away from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.
This is the promise of salvation to those who repent. And in verses 10-12 God shows us that true repentance means you must be ashamed of your sins. He says…
Verses 10-12 – God Promises Salvation to the Repentant
10Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.
11And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
12This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
What should make us ashamed as Christians, is just how far short we fall from the pattern of living God has revealed.
In Ezekiel’s day, they had this visionary temple to compare themselves with, to make them ashamed. But we have something far more clear and convicting to compare ourselves with.
We have the Incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the glory of God, and the exact imprint of the Father. Jesus is the Most Holy Place, the Temple of God, and He reveals to us in the gospel what human perfection looks like. And so have you compared yourself to Him?
You can and should read Ezekiel 40-48, and then be ashamed of yourself if you can understand it. We should be ashamed of the state of the church today, and how apostate and unfaithful we are, how crooked and corrupt our pews and pulpits have become, how poorly we live in spite of all that God has given us!
But what is much easier for all of us is to look at is Jesus. Look at the Son of God. And compare yourself to Him. Are you not ashamed of how unlike Christ you still are? Even after all this time professing Him as Lord?
Jesus says be merciful as Your Father is merciful, but you go home and lose your temper, you get angry and start blaming other people and demanding your own way. Jesus says be self-less, and you think that means be selfish. We profess Him with our mouth, but our hearts are far from Him.
Jesus says forgive your debtors as I have forgiven you, love one another. And you think that means, hold on to your grudges, nurse them, and make that other person pay.
How can you look at Jesus, and his dead body hanging from the cross, and not be ashamed of yourself? You have to be either delusional, or not actually seeing Him at all.
God says to Ezekiel, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house.
Conclusion
Jesus Christ is the House of God. Jesus is the perfect architecture and form for a new humanity. And God promises that if you repent and believe in Christ, the Father will forgive your sins, He will cover your shame. He will clothe you with a new power from on high, the very power of His Holy Spirit.
And then when in the Spirit, you look at Jesus, it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, that you are transformed into His image, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
And so I charge you dear brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, be careful what you look at in your mind. Be careful what you think about and ponder, adore and worship. Because what you love, is what you will become like. The image you worship and adore, is the image you will be conformed to. If you worship people or things that are not the source of life, you will die. But if you worship Jesus, who is the only true and living God, you shall live forever, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Severed Unto GodSunday, September 20th, 2026Seventeenth Sunday After PentecostChrist Covenant Church – Centralia, WALeviticus 20:22–26
Prayer
O Father we thank You for severing us for Yourself. We thank You for making us to be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, that we may reign upon the earth. Teach us to exercise dominion over our own selves, so that we become holy temples wherein Your Spirit may dwell. Grant us the increase of living faith, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we saw in Genesis 1, that God likes to Divide and Adorn the spaces He Creates. Just as an architect must divide up a grand house into different rooms and levels, so also does God in His work of creation. Just as you, when you move into an empty house, start to fill it with furnishings, personal items, you paint the walls, you set pictures on the mantle, so also does God in His work of creation. God divides up what He creates and then adorns/beautifies those spaces.
What did God divide on the first day of Creation? We are told in Genesis 1:4, God divided the light from the darkness.
What about the second day? On the second day He divided the waters above from the waters below, placing a roof/firmament between them.
On the third day of Creation, God divided the seas from the dry land, and then He adorned/clothed/covered that land with fruit trees, grass, and herb-yielding seed.
On the fourth day of Creation, God beatified the firmament with sun, moon, and stars. He made them to be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. And in so doing, God divided and adorned time itself.
On the fifth day of Creation, God adorned the seas and the sky, filling them with fish and birds accordingly.
And on the sixth day, God adorned the land further, he created beasts and cattle and creeping things, and then crowned His creation with an image of Himself.
As it says in Genesis 1:27, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Mankind is the ultimate ornament of creation. The human form is what God joined to Himself inseparably in the Incarnation of the Son.
And so every human being in this room is a living image of the Holy Trinity. And you were created to reflect in some unique way, the perfection and goodness of the one who is I AM. The God who is very being, very life, very truth, very goodness, created you for His good pleasure, and all things for Himself.
As the Apostle Paul says in Acts 17:28, in Him we live, and move, and have our being.
And in Romans 11:36 he says, For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
So God has revealed in Genesis 1, that He likes to Divide and Adorn His good creation, and by doing so he takes what is already good and improves it. God takes what is good and makes it even better. That is the story of human history.
This means there are real degrees of goodness and glory in God’s creation. And what the rest of the Bible teaches us is that God continues this work of Dividing and Adorning, to bring about a New Creation in Christ Jesus, after our fall into sin. This is what the Church is. This what you are meant to be and to become.
It says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
And so this morning I want to trace this theme of Division and Adornment, of Distinction and Beautification, as it begins in Genesis 1 and culminates in Christ and His Church. And so I have divided our sermon up into two big questions.
Outline of the Sermon
How does God divide and adorn His people in the Old Testament?
How does God divide and adorn His people in the New Testament?So let us start with a consideration of our text here in Leviticus 20, which makes explicit what it means to be divided or severed for God.
Leviticus 20:26 – Q1. How does God divide and adorn His people in the Old Testament?
26And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.
Now recall from Genesis 1, that God is said to divide light from darkness, waters below from waters above, and day from night.
And in each of those verses in Genesis 1, some form of the Hebrew verb (vedel) בדל is used to describe this act of division (LXX: διαχωριζω). Some translations go with separated, or distinguished, singled out, or excluded.
And it is this same Hebrew verb, that is used four times here in Leviticus 20, to describe how God has divided/severed/separated Israel for Himself.
So in verse 24, it says, I am the Lord your God, which have (“vedeled you”) separated you from other people.
Here that division is between unbelieving Canaanites and all their perversions, and the nation of Israel which must not imitate those perversions.
God divides/separates Israel from the pagan nations.
In verse 25 God reinforces this division, by requiring that Israel also divide/separate clean animals from unclean animals.
He says, Ye shall therefore put difference (vedel) between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated (vedeled) from you as unclean.
So God imposes upon the nation of Israel this distinction between clean and unclean animals, as a symbolic and ceremonial division between the unclean, unbaptized, unbelieving nations and God’s holy nation.
This is what He makes explicit in verse 26, And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you (vedeled you) from other people, that ye should be mine.
So under the Old Covenant, in its Mosaic Administration, God required these divisions as a way of teaching His people moral discernment.
Just as the unclean animals do not chew the cud and divide the hoof (Lev. 11), so also the unclean nations do not rightly divide between good and evil.
And so God externalizes in the ceremonial law, internal spiritual realities. And this is the primary way God teaches His people under Moses, because of their youth and immaturity.
Children need sensible realities, things they can see, taste, touch, and smell, so that eventually they can come to know (by analogy) spiritual realities that transcend the senses.
The Apostle Paul describes the Old Covenant era as being like children going to elementary school.
He says in Galatians 3:24-25, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
And in Galatians 4:1-3 he says, Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
So the difference between Old and New Testaments, is the difference between childhood and maturity, fearful servitude and liberating sonship.
What God ritualized and externalized in the law and the temple and the priesthood, Jesus comes and fulfills and leads us to its spiritual substance (heaven, eternity, God dwelling within us).
This principle is especially manifest in the construction of the Tabernacle, the Temple, and the Levitical Priesthood.
If we trace that Hebrew word vedel, from Genesis 1 we discover that the next time it is used is to divide the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
It says in Exodus 26:33, And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy.
Now if you don’t remember the floorplan for the tabernacle, let me give you a brief refresher.
There are three basic zones of worship: the courtyard, the holy place, and the most holy place. And these three zones are meant to teach Israel how to ascend to heaven and get close to God.
So if you walked into the courtyard, the first thing you would see is the Bronze Altar. This is a symbolic mountain upon which sacrifices are offered, ultimately signifying the mountain where Christ will be crucified.
What is the lesson here? The lesson is you must die as a living sacrifice if you would be transformed into God’s glory cloud. There is no ascent to heaven without first suffering under God’s knife and fire.
After the Bronze Altar is the Bronze Laver of cleansing. And this is a symbolic version of the waters above the firmament, which you must through in order to enter the holy place.
What is the lesson here? The lesson is what Jesus says in John 3:3, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
So just as Israel passed through fire and flood, so also must every true worshipper if they want to ascend to God. And it is only after this baptism in fire and water, that a priest may enter the holy place, which a symbolic heaven where sun, moon, and stars are.
Within the holy place was the table of shewbread, the lampstand, and the altar of incense.
Every day in the morning and in the evening the priest entered this holy place to dress the lamps and renew the incense. This signified that God desired the light of truth, and the aroma of praise to be constantly present before Him.
And then only one day a year, on the day of Atonement, was the High Priest allowed to enter the Most Holy Place. And according to Hebrews 9 and 10, this signified the highest heaven, where the throne of God rested above the cherubim (Ps. 99:1).
And Hebrews tells us that the veil that divided the holy place from the most holy place is the flesh of Christ.
Listen to Hebrews 10:19-22, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
So God divided and adorned the nation of Israel primarily in an external way. He gave them visible external rituals, external adornment, external sacrifices, physical structures and ceremonial laws to divide clean from unclean, holy from unholy. All this to keep them distinct from the pagan world until Christ should come.
So God severed Israel from the nations, to make them a possession for Himself. This is what it means to be holy unto the Lord. God severs you from the world, so are you still in but not of it.
Now this leads us to an answer to our second question, which is.
Q2. How does God divide and adorn His people in the New Testament?
Hopefully by now, you can see that God does this primarily in the New Testament, in an internal way. What the old covenant law concealed in types and shadows, Jesus reveals and gives us the true form.
So just as the law divided between clean and unclean animals, which signified clean and unclean people, so also Jesus comes and preaches a gospel that divides His hearers.
He says in Luke 12:49-53, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
What is Jesus doing by his life and ministry? He is separating with His spoken word the light from the darkness, the good from the evil, the believing from the reprobate. And that sword of division shall cut through families. It will divide the closest of natural bonds, and form in His body a new and supernatural bond. This is the church.
The ministry of Jesus is a ministry of bring in everlasting peace, but there can be no peace until evil is destroyed. And how can God destroy evil without also destroying every sinner? This is the conundrum, and the answer is the cross.
Upon the cross, Jesus must himself be divided, body from soul, severed for the sins of His people, so that He may unite us to God. This is the gospel that divides and separates in order to reconcile and unify. God makes divisions so He can bring about a new unity.
Now what about adornment? How does the beauty of Jesus differ from the beauty of Israel under the law?
Again, we see that what the temple and the high priest had externally, Jesus had internally.
It says of Jesus in Isaiah 53:2-3, He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
So the most beautiful person there ever was or shall be, the man Christ Jesus, has a beauty that transcends what the eye can behold. Jesus is adorned with an invisible divinity and a perfect humanity, but the world in its darkness cannot perceive this.
So whereas the temple in Jerusalem was outwardly impressive, it had gold, silver, and precious stones. What did Jesus have? Jesus had love, truth, meekness, honesty, a character more firm than the foundations of the temple.
While the high priest had a golden plate upon his turban that said HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD, Jesus is the Holy Lord, the divine Son of God.
The high priest wore a tunic of fine linen, a robe of royal colors, and a crown upon his head. What did Jesus wear? A crown of thorns, he was stripped naked and scourged, and took our shame upon His perfect body.
The high priest had a breastplate with twelve jewels upon it, signifying the twelve tribes of Israel that the priest represented. What did Jesus have upon his heart? He had Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James (Acts 1:13). Later he added to his breastplate Matthias (to replace Judas) and the Apostle Paul, and through them He preached salvation to the ends of the earth. The twelve apostles are the breastplate of the church, and in Revelation they are the foundations of the New Jerusalem.
And so we see the external beauty of the old covenant, was transformed by the life of Jesus. And this is why in the New Covenant spiritual and inner beauty is exalted over appearances.
Consider 1 Peter 3:3-4 which says to wives,Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
Likewise in 1 Timothy 2:8-10, I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
It says in Revelation 19:8 of the Church, And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of saints.
What the temple in Jerusalem was externally, God wants the New Jerusalem, The Church to be internally.
As it says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
So recall again the principle that has been then theme of this series. In the Bible, buildings represent people, and people are God’s special building.
This means that if worship is constantly happening in the tabernacle and temple, with morning and evening sacrifices, holy bread for God, a lampstand always lit, and incense constantly ascending to heaven, then that is who you should aspire to be, and that is what together we must aspire to become as Christ’s Church.
And so I ask you, if you are a temple, is God being worshipped within you, or are there idols in your heart?
What kind of sacrifices are being offered up upon the altar of your soul? David says in Psalm 51:17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. So is there contrition and sorrow over sin in your soul?
It says in Psalm 141:2, Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Is there a liturgy of love and devotion in your heart every day? Do you begin the day with thanksgiving, pray without ceasing, and at the days end, lift your hands in doxology?
Is the sevenfold lampstand of divine love burning within you? Or has the oil run dry? Have you quenched the Holy Spirit by holding on to grudges and feeding your bitterness.
Jesus says in Luke 11:35-36, Take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
And it says in 1 John 2:9, He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
So the way you know if you are a temple and God is within you, is if you have true love for your neighbor, your brother, even your enemy, constantly abiding within.
Conclusion
The love of God, the love of Jesus, is the light of the soul, because love covers a multitude of sins. And so resolve today to become that holy temple God calls you to be. Where worship never ends, where thanksgiving overflows, where praise and worship is ever upon your lips. As it says in Colossians 3:16-17, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
May God severe you from all that is evil, and adorn your soul with holy joy. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.