In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the concept of salvation and how it is available to anyone who accepts it. He refers to the Bible verse in Genesis 1:14-19, where God creates the lights in the heavens for signs, seasons, and days. The preacher explains that these lights, such as the sun, moon, and stars, are responsible for the various seasons we experience on Earth. He shares a story about a little girl trying to prove that the moon is not made of green cheese, highlighting the importance of critical thinking and personal understanding. The sermon also discusses the different ages in which God has been involved with the Earth and how the current age focuses on God taking people out of this world for heaven, rather than improving the world or converting it through preaching the gospel.

And verse 14, Genesis 1 and verse 14, And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Let us turn to Matthew 16, Matthew 16. And verse 13, Matthew 16 and verse 13, When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Let us turn to Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 1. 9 And when he had spoken these words, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked up steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, whereabove both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, and Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotis, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. Chapter 2, and verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Our gracious God and Father, we desire to thank you tonight for thy precious word, and we thank it's our privilege to gather together again in this way, to come before thee to listen to what thou would say to us. We thank thee for thy Holy Spirit who is here amongst us, and we pray that he might take of the things of Christ and show them to us, that we who are thy people might be enlightened in understanding, to understand the place and the privilege that thou has given to us as members of the body of Christ, that we might be able to function properly as members of that body, and fill the place which thou has given to us. We pray for any amongst us tonight who may not be saved, we pray that something might fall for them, that thy Holy Spirit might bring thy word to bear upon their hearts, that some precious souls might even yet be brought to the Lord Jesus. We commend ourselves to thee now and ask thee to bless us, to guide us, and to teach us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, in the first three days that we have been noticing on the chart, we notice that the Lord is occupied with works in the earth. We saw how the first day God said, let there be light, and we saw the first age, then the second day while the waters above were separated from the waters beneath, and then the third day while the earth was brought forth out of the waters, and it was caused to bring forth fruit. We have been noticing in the past how God has been dealing with the earth, that God gave life to the first group of people from Adam to Noah, and then how God gave government from the time of Noah to Abraham, and then from the time of Abraham to the time of Christ, how God was dealing with the nation of Israel, and calling out from amongst the nation of Israel a people for earth. And so now when we come to the fourth day, we notice that God, as it were, turns away from the earth, and God is occupied with the heavens, and that pictures for us this fourth age in which we live, in which at present God is occupied with taking out of this world a people for heaven. God is not interested in making the world a better place to live in, neither is God interested or occupied with the preaching of the gospel converting the world in this present period of time. When I was a teenager in the state of Chicago, of course at that time I did not know the Lord, and I certainly didn't know anything about the Bible, but I did think that Christianity, if it continued to be preached, why eventually the entire world would be converted, and people would be able to live in peace, there wouldn't be any more lawlessness, there wouldn't be any more wickedness, there wouldn't be any more gangsters or unrighteousness, everything would be run smoothly, and in a way that would make everybody happy. Now that's what I thought the preaching of the word of God would do, and there are many who still have the idea that that is what is being done in this present period of time, that by means of the preaching of the gospel God is going to convert the whole world, and God is going to make the world a better place to live in, but that is not so. God is not trying to convert the world and make the world a better place for people to live in. What God is interested in is, by means of the gospel, saving precious souls whom he brings into the church, and that church is a company that is being fitted for heaven. In other words, what God is especially interested in now is preparing a people for heaven. That's why the world seems to wax worse and worse. That's why wickedness increases on every hand. People blaspheme God, people deny that there is a God, people say, I don't believe in the bible, that it is the word of God, and it seems to increase. God doesn't open heaven and send fire down from heaven to destroy those who are his enemies. He allows them to go on in their unbelief, and they're increasing, and becoming more numerous on every hand. But, at the same time, God is accomplishing and fulfilling his purpose. God is carrying out the program that he intended from the very beginning of human history, from before time began. In eternity, God had his purpose, and God is carrying out that purpose. Now, we saw how that in the old testament, God was dealing with one nation in particular. There was one nation that was God's chosen people, and that was the nation of Israel. There is no such nation upon the face of the earth today. Oh, doesn't God like America better than the Chinese? Doesn't God think more of the United States than he does of Russia? No, he doesn't. He doesn't think more of the United States than he does in Russia. Now, I want to make myself understood. I would rather be living in the United States than in Russia, but what I want to say is that God loves the Russians just as much as he does the people of the United States, and God will save the Russians just like he does the people of the United States, and when a person is saved in Russia, that person becomes a member of the church, which we shall see is the body of Christ just as much as a United States person who believes the gospel is made a member of the body of Christ, which is the church. What I want to say is there is no specially favored nation today. Not even Israel is God's favored nation today. Let us turn to the book of Hosea for a moment, and we'll see that. Hosea chapter 1, that is the Old Testament. Now, remember that in the Old Testament, Israel was the favored people of God, but now notice in Hosea chapter 1 and verse 8. Now, here we have the prophet Hosea, and his wife is bearing children, and each one of these children is named and given a special name because these names were meant to carry a lesson to the people of Israel, and notice in the eighth verse it says, Now, that is Israel's present state. You notice on this chart here that when the nation of Israel crucified the Lord Jesus, Pilate had presented Jesus to the Jewish people, and he says, Behold your king, and remember they said, We have no king but Caesar. So, he said to them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called the Christ? They said, Away with him, crucify him, crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? Yes, crucify him, we don't want him, and over his head Pilate wrote, This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Now, that's what they did with their king. They crucified him, they rejected him, and so when they rejected him, God also rejected them from being a nation. You notice here that this red line stops here, although you notice that there is a red arrow, and you notice there is also a green arrow bringing before us that in this present period of time God is not favoring the Jews above the Gentiles, but God has considered all, both Jews and Gentiles, under sin. God puts them all on the same platform, and he says, You're all under sin, and he says, I'm sending out the gospel to all people that whosoever believe it. Isn't that wonderful? Whosoever, whosoever, who is it? Why, it's like the little boy said, whosoever is you, me, or anybody else, you, me, or anybody else that will, can be saved and accept God's salvation. Now, you notice here, this 14, it tells us here in the 14th verse of Genesis 1, And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also, and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. Now, here we have the fourth day. You notice it does not say God created the sun and the moon and the stars. It says he made them, and he set them. Now, there's no doubt that the sun and the moon were created in the original creation. There's no doubt that in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That is the time when the sun and the moon and the stars were brought into being. But when this terrible catastrophe came down upon the earth, probably because of Satan's sin against God, when he determined to be equal with God, as we have it recorded in the 14th chapter of Isaiah and the 28th chapter of Ezekiel, this catastrophe struck this creation, and no doubt it affected the sun and the moon and the stars. Scientists tell us that what happened probably was that the ray of the heat of the sun was withdrawn from the earth, and the result was that the moisture around our globe, it froze and it fell to the earth, and the beginning of the great ice ages were brought in. And so, the earth was in the power and in the force under the influence of those ice ages for a long period of time. But on the fourth day, God set the sun and the moon and the stars in the right relation to the earth, so that again this planet might receive the benefit of the sun and the moon and the stars. That is why we are not inclined to think that these days are ages, because it wasn't until the fourth day that the sun was put into the right relation to the earth. So, how is it possible that in the third day there could have been any vegetation for any long period of time without the influence of the sun upon the earth as it is now so necessary for the present forms of vegetation? Yet, if God had made the earth to bring forth fruit on the third day, the solar day, why it could very well exist until the fourth day when the sun was caused to shine upon the earth. So, that seems to be another indication that these days are literal days of 24 hours each, and not periods of time of thousands of years. So, God sets the sun and the moon and the stars in their proper place to shine upon the earth. He sets them there for signs and wonders, for seasons and for days and years, and we know how true this is. That is because of these planets, because of the sun and moon and the stars, that in our present form of life you and I enjoy the various seasons. Yes, we enjoy the winter and the spring, the summer and the fall. We enjoy day and night. We have the seasons, and it was in the fourth day that God put them in their proper relation upon the face of the earth. I remember reading a little story one time about a little girl who came from home from school for lunch, and her father was a preacher. And she says, father, she says, I'd like to have your help. She says, you know, our teacher asked us, how can we prove that the moon is not made of green cheese? And the father says, well, you'll have to figure that out for yourself. Well, she says, I've got to give that answer in school, but how can I prove that the moon is not made of green cheese? Well, he says, you'll have to figure that one out for yourself. And so when she came home that evening as they were sitting at supper, he said to her, well, how did you come up with your question? Were you able to prove that the moon is not made of green cheese? She says, yes, I did. Well, he said, how did you prove it? Well, she says, I proved it from the Bible. You proved it from the Bible. How could you prove from the Bible that the moon is not made of green cheese? Well, she said, in the first chapter of Genesis, it says that on the fourth day, God made the sun and the moon and the stars. And it wasn't until the sixth day that he made the animals. So, I know that there was no green cheese before there was a cow. And so he says, that's how I know that the moon is not made of green cheese. Well, that was a pretty sharp answer, wasn't it? She certainly had her wits about her. That's how she knew that the moon was not made of green cheese, because there was a moon before there ever was a cow. And of course, without a cow, there could be no green cheese. You know, that's also the answer to the question, which came first? The chicken or the egg? Well, we know, according to the Bible, that the chicken came first. How do we know that? Because in the sixth day, God made the fowls of the heavens. Or was it the fifth day that he made the fowls of the heavens? And so we know from the Bible which came first. Now, the sun and the moon and the stars are for signs and for seasons, for days and for years, and we know how true this is. And then he arranged them into heaven. Now, we know the sun, of course, is the great center of our solar system. There was a day when men used to think that the earth was the center of the solar system. But we know that now it is the sun that is the center of our solar system. The sun, my, how large is the sun? Why, they tell us that the sun is at least 1,300,000 times as large as the earth on which you and I live. 1,300,000 times as large as the earth on which you and I live. That the sun, for instance, throws out energy equivalent to 600 trillion tons of coal every minute. Just think of that, 600 trillion tons of coal, the energy that is thrown out by the sun in all directions. And the thing about it is that it just keeps on burning and burning and burning. I'm reminded of another story of a woman who was listening to a scientific lecture about the sun, and this scientist, he was telling how that every year the sun was throwing off so much energy that in the course of 10 billion years why the sun would eventually burn out. And after the meeting, a woman came up to her all excited, she says, Doctor, Doctor, what did you say, how long did you say it would be before the sun would burn out? And he says, well, I said, so I think it was 10 billion years. Oh, she says, I thought you said 10 million, Doctor. I thought you said 10 billion. Well, it doesn't make a difference whether it's 10 billion or whether it's 10 billion, you and I won't be here to worry about it burning out. But just think of it, every minute the sun is burning up the equivalent and throwing off the energy from 600 trillion tons of coal. Isn't that tremendous? And yet, the sun, our sun, is one of the smallest suns in the entire universe. There are suns, and our sun is 1,300,000 times larger than the earth. We could get 1,300,000 of our earth into the sun, equivalent mass of it. Yet, there are suns that are over 1,000,000 times larger than our sun in the universe around us. So, my friends, we are living in a tremendous, tremendous universe that has been created by our God. And isn't it wonderful that he is our God? Now, what does this picture for us? This picture for us is fourth age. The sun, of course, we know that the sun to us is a picture of him who is the center of God's spiritual system. And who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. And just as the moon gives its light by reflecting the light of the sun, so it is that the church is here on earth, like the moon, reflecting the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I go out tonight, and we look for the sun, we don't see it. It's someplace, but it's concealed from our vision. It's out of our sight. And yet, if we were to look into the heavens, we would see the moon. And the moon is reflecting the light of that unseen sun, and it shed its light abroad upon the earth. That is the relationship of the church to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is the son of righteousness. We read of him in the fourth chapter of Malachi as the son of righteousness. But the Lord Jesus Christ is concealed at this present time. In Acts chapter 1, we read about how he ascended to heaven. And that's where he is at this present time. The world doesn't see him. The world doesn't know him. But where is the Lord Jesus? The Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven. But just as when the sun is concealed, or in hiding, you might say, from our vision, there is the moon, which reflects the light of the sun. And that is the position of the church. The church is like the moon. The moon has no light of its own. It has no light of its own. It merely reflects a light that shines upon it. The church, so-called, has no light of its own. The church can only bring before the world the message that the Lord gives it. And that is true of every Christian. That is true of every servant of the Lord. We have nothing of our own to give. What I think doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What you think doesn't matter. The question is, what does the Lord say? And that is the responsibility of the servant of the Lord. That is the responsibility of the individual Christian. To bring before people the light that the Lord gives to us. And that light is in his precious word. Now, as I said, when the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus, God ceased to deal with the Jews as the nation. The Lord Jesus Christ, you see this golden line? That symbolizes the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. Forty days after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he accompanied with his disciples and told them they were to tarry in Jerusalem until they would receive the promise of the spirit which he would send unto them. And when the spirit came down upon them, they would receive power. And that power would be to witness to all everywhere about him. He says, ye shall be witnesses unto me. And so after the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples returned from the Mount Olivet, as we have in reading in Acts chapter one, and they went into the upper room and they were gathered together there for prayer. A hundred and twenty disciples. And you remember, they continued in prayer for ten days until the day of Pentecost. And on the day of Pentecost, suddenly a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And you notice here we have a blue line which symbolizes the descent of the Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity. He came down, he sat upon each of the disciples like as a cloven tongue, and they began to speak with different tongues. And as they began to speak, they began to speak the wonderful works of God. And here were people from Rome, here were people from other parts of the world, people with different dialects who had come to Jerusalem to worship at this particular time. And here all of a sudden they heard these 120 people all speaking in their own language. And as they were speaking in their own language, they were speaking the wonderful works of God. And as they were speaking these works, the people were astonished. And they said, well how do these people who have never been out of Galilee, how can they speak all these different languages? And Peter stood up and Peter began to tell them what had happened. He had told them how that the Holy Spirit had come down, how that Jesus had been crucified, how that Jesus had been raised again from the dead. Now when the Holy Spirit came down, He not only abode upon each one of them and enable them to speak with these tongues, He not only indwelt each one of them, but He brought those 120 disciples into a single union, into a single body. He began something there that has been going on for the last 1900 years. He began to form the church, and that church, as you notice here, it is a blue line, and you notice that through these seven stages which we're going to speak about in the various days that are ahead of us, you notice that this blue line pictures for us, from the beginning of the church age to the very end of it, how that those who are really and truly born again, they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they are the children of God, but they are also formed into the church. You notice that here we have these two arrows, a red arrow speaking of the Jew, a green arrow speaking of the Gentile. In other words, the message of the gospel comes to both Jew and Gentile, and when Jew or Gentile believes the gospel, he ceases to be a Jew, and he ceases to be a Gentile, and he is brought into another company, and that company is the church. In that church, we find there are no nationalities. Let us turn to the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians for a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and notice in the twelfth verse it tells us, For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bound or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. Now, this thirteenth verse is a very important verse, because first of all, it brings before us what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. Now, you know there are a number of religious cults and religious groups that make a lot of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They say, well, have you been, I remember speaking to a man one time, and I asked him if he was saved, and he says, well, he says, I've been saved, and I've been sanctified. I said, well, what do you mean by being sanctified? He says, well, I've been baptized with the Holy Spirit. I said, well, do you mean then that you're sinless? Well, he didn't dare to go through that far, but there are Christians who have the idea that when you are saved, that is one thing, but you need another experience to become more spiritual, and that experience is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and so these Pentecostal people, they begin to pray, and they agonize, and they try to put themselves through all kinds of mortifications, and in order to get this experience that is going to enable them to speak in some kind of a gibberish that they think is the language of heaven, and that they think is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I want you to notice here that Paul says the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not something that makes you super spiritual. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is that which brings you into the body of Christ, and it is something that happens without you even feeling it, without you even knowing anything about it, unless God revealed it to you through his precious word. When I trusted the Lord Jesus as my Savior, I was saved. My sins were forgiven. That's all I knew. I knew that I was saved. My sins were forgiven. I knew that I'd never be in hell, and I knew that I'd be in heaven, but I found out later that I had also been baptized with the Holy Spirit. That is, that I had been brought into the body of Christ, that I was a member of the Church of the Living God. Now, that was done without me knowing anything about it or doing anything about it. It was something that the Lord did the moment I trusted his Son. Let us suppose, for instance, that in this building we had, this is just a crude illustration, there's electric light. Let's say we had a fan here. We had an air conditioner here. We had a radio here, and we had a nice screen maker there. Now, let's just imagine, and they're all on one current. All I have to do is flip the switch, the lights will go on, the radio will start working, the fan will start whirring, the air conditioner will work, the ice cream maker will start making ice cream. Now, all those things happen the moment I flip the switch. Now, it's the very same with the Holy Spirit. The very moment I believe the gospel, the very moment I receive Christ as my Savior, I am born of the Spirit. I am indwelled of the Spirit. I am baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. I am anointed by the Holy Spirit, and fitted to witness for him, and to testify for him. All of these things are different, but they all take place the very moment I trust the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. And so, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not some kind of a spiritual ecstatic experience that you have. It's something you don't even feel. The only way we know it is because God reveals it to us in his word. On the day of Pentecost, though the Lord had told them that they would be baptized in the Holy Ghost, they did not know what it would involve. But, when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, those 120 individual believers became a unity. They became a new thing. There was a union and a oneness formed by that Holy Spirit's baptism which brought them together. And that is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. And then this 13th verse tells us, for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free. Now, you notice there, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, God began a new thing. Now, that's what I read in Matthew chapter 16. Let us go back for a moment to Matthew chapter 16. You notice here in Matthew chapter 16, the Lord has Peter confess him. And when Peter confesses to the question that the Lord asked him, the Lord asked him, Who am I? Peter says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16 verse 17, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Now, on the day of Pentecost, the Lord began this which he said he was going to build. On the day of Pentecost, he began to build his church. Now, we want to understand that, because some people seem to have the idea that the church began way in the days of Adam. Others think that it began in the days of Abraham, because certain covenants were given to Abraham. But I want you to notice that there was no church at the time the Lord was on earth, because the Lord said, I will build my church. And the church could not begin until the Holy Spirit came down to begin it, and the church could not begin until the Lord Jesus, the head, was ascended into heaven. In the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, it speaks of the body, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. What is that body? Let us turn to Ephesians chapter one for a moment. Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one and verse 20, where it says, Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand into heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Now, I want you to notice that there could not be any body, there could not be any church, until the Lord Jesus Christ was risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. It was only then, when Jesus was exalted far above all principality and power, that God gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body. So, we know that there was no church until Jesus was ascended to heaven, and he was glorified because the head had to be in heaven before the body could be formed. The second reason we know that there was no church is because the church could not begin to be formed until the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost to begin to form it. Now, you might say, well, what is the difference after all? What is the difference after all? Those people in the Old Testament, they were saved. Adam was saved, Noah was saved, Abraham was saved, David was saved, Solomon was saved, they were saved, they'll be in heaven, and we're saved too. Well, what's the difference between those who were saved then and those who are saved now? Well, in this age, the church is the body of Christ, which is more than just being saved. The church is the bride of Christ. Let me ask the girls here this evening, which would you rather be at a wedding? A bridesmaid or the bride? Which would you rather be? Would you rather be the usher or the bridegroom? Which would you rather be at a wedding? We know there are different classes at a wedding. There are the bridesmaids, there are the ushers, there are the people who are the mere guests, and then, of course, there's the bridegroom and the bride. Well, these people, from Adam all the way to the dying thief on the cross, every one of them went to heaven, and every one of them will be in heaven, but in heaven, they are going to be the friends of the bridegroom. But those who are saved in this present age who are the church, they are going to be the bride. Which would you rather be in a kingdom? Would you rather be the king or the queen? Would you rather be the queen or would you rather be just one of the ambassadors or one of the servants or one of the guardsmen? That's the difference between the church and those who were saved prior to that. The company, the church, which is composed of all true believers from the day of Pentecost until the Lord comes, they are going to be and are members of the body. I was going to look at the church, but our time is gone. It is the body, the body of which Christ is the head. That speaks of our union with him, our oneness with him that you find on Ephesians chapter 1. In Ephesians chapter 2, you find that the church is the building of which Christ is the chief cornerstone and the foundation. The church is the dwelling place of God by his spirit. You look at a little company of believers who meet together in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you say, well, they're just common ordinary people, people who say they're saved, people who are Christians. Yes, but when they come together, the Lord dwells amongst them by his spirit. And this is what makes the church of such importance to God and to heaven. God doesn't dwell in this building here. This is not the church. This is only a building of wood and of stone and of plaster and glass. When we leave this building, this building is empty. God isn't here. But when a simple company of believers come together, the Lord comes here amongst his people because that company of saved people is his dwelling place, is his church. And so, it is first of all a body speaking of our oneness with Christ. Then it is a building speaking of the dwelling place of God. And then it is also a bride. And a bride's relationship to the bridegroom is that of affection. What is the highest love? The greatest love? I remember reading a story, I remember reading Narakorn of the Digest one time, and I thought it was a very good, I thought it was a very good title. And it was, Whatsoever God hath joined together, let not man put his thunder. And then he spoke of the marriage vow, not till death do us part, but till children do us part. Children do us part. You say, yes, it's a sad thing to see parents, the mother standing up for the children against the husband, or the husband standing up for the children against the wife. Sometimes children will come and they'll take the affection of the wife, and make that the chief affection, or the affection of the husband, and make that the chief affection. In God's Word, the supreme, the highest affection is the affection of husband for wife, and wife for husband. That is to be the supreme, the greatest of all affections. And then comes the affections of parents for children, and children for parents. But the important thing is to remember that the affection of the bride for the husband, and the husband for the bride, is the supreme affection. That is the greatest affection. And so, in the church, being the bride of Christ, we have the affection of Christ for the church, and the church for Christ. And then the fourth picture we have of the church is specific. Specific. And we find that in Revelation 21, where heaven is both a place and a company. And that city will be the administrative center of Christ for the universe, not only for the earth. Not only for the earth. That city is going to be God's satellite in space. The bible teaches us that that heavenly city, which is going to be 1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles wide, a perfect cube, is going to be suspended in space. And it is going to be the center from which God is going to administer earth, and the entire universe. I'm going to see Jupiter someday. I'm going to take John's over to other satellite systems someday. I believe it. I believe it. I believe that when the Lord comes back, and he comes back with his glory, we who are saved, oh yes, I know, I read today, and I believe that's true. I believe that's true. This Christian says, well, he says, for the first thousand years that I'm there, I'm just going to be occupied with the Lord Jesus, and I'm going to look upon him who died for me, and gave himself for me. I'm just going to worship and thank and adore him. But after I've been there a thousand years, I'm going to begin to take a few jaunts here, and a few jaunts there, to look over the inheritance that the Lord gives us, and by which the Lord is going to administer. And so that city, that city is also a description of the church as the administrative center of Christ for the entire universe. The church. We're going to look at that a little bit more tomorrow, but there we have four pictures of the church, and everyone who is saved goes to compose that church, is a member of that body, is a member of that building, is a member of that bride, is a member who will be in that city, which will be the administrative center of the Lord Jesus Christ for the entire universe. You know when I think of these things, as I read them in the word of God, it makes me realize how true are the words of God when he speaks of salvation being so great a salvation. What a wonderful salvation to have. Do you have it? Is everyone in this meeting tonight saved? Have you been born of the spirit? Are you a member of his body? Are you a member of his church? You belong to him. If you don't, you can't.