With that summary in mind let us now inquire: Why was the church needed? We can only indicate the answer in a few words. God has a purpose concerning the universe, but for its accomplishment it was necessary for Him to wield authority, because as we pointed out earlier, no plan can be carried into effect where authority is lacking. Whether or not God would be able to implement His purpose hinged on this matter of authority. So when God's enemy sought to frustrate God's purpose, he did a crucial thing—he violated God's authority. How did God seek to meet the situation? He did so by securing another creation through which He could exercise authority. He sought a company of men who would give Him the right-of-way on the earth to carry His will into effect. If only He could secure a band of men on the earth who would let Him wield dominion over them, then He could accomplish His purpose concerning Christ in and through them. It was for this reason that God needed the church. He wanted to have the church in order to bring His kingdom from heaven to earth.

The question which now arises is this: How is the church secured? We might answer: "The Lord Jesus shed His blood for the remission of our sins and gave His life that we might be born again and thereby constitute the church." This is true enough, but it is a very superficial aspect of the truth. The Scriptures present this far more profound aspect—that the church has been secured through the sovereign rule of heaven. Because the kingdom of heaven is able to assert its authority over a company of men, that company of men can be built up into a church. It is necessary at this point to recapitulate. Why was the church brought into being? For the purpose of bringing in the kingdom! How was the church brought into being? By means of the authority of the kingdom! God's purpose was to bring His heavenly dominion to the earth, and apart from the church, His goal could not be attained. He needed a people who would subject themselves to the dominion of heaven, so that under that dominion they might be built up into the church. That is what Matthew 16 reveals. Do not imagine that by our salvation alone we become the church. We who are saved are in the church, but our salvation alone does not constitute us the church. The church is a Body; therefore, there is need of relatedness and there is the need of building up.

Let me illustrate. Our body has very many bones, but do many bones constitute a body? Let the Old Testament book of Ezekiel supply the answer. Ezekiel says that the children of Israel were in the sight of God like a heap of dry bones. One day the breath of life came into them, and the bones were knit together, and they became one body (Ezek. 37).

To illustrate again, the church is a house. It is God's dwelling, God's temple. Now the Bible says that we who are saved are "living stones" and are built together into a "spiritual house" (1 Pet. 2:5). We admit that a house is built of stones, but a heap of stones is not a house. Brothers and sisters, do not take for granted that if a thousand brothers and sisters come together here, it means that the church is here. What is the church? It is the saved assembled together. But what kind of an assembling together is it? A great number of stones heaped up together is not a house. What then is a house? It is stone built upon stone—this one set on top of that one, that one set beside the other one, above and beneath, to left and to right, before and behind, all perfectly placed in relation to one another. Apart from a building together of the stones there can be no house. There might be a thousand brothers and sisters together and all are saved, but we would still ask whether they have been built together or not. They are certainly church material, but whether they are the church or not depends on whether or not they have been built together. Without building there is no church.

Perhaps some would ask what it really means to be built. Unfortunately, while the word "built," as used in Matthew 16, is found very often in the New Testament, it is frequently rendered "edify." So we read of believers being "edified" and of the church being "edified." But the original language does not imply (as does the word "edify") to "improve morally," or to "benefit spiritually," but truly to "build." How do we build? Well, here is a stone! Along comes a workman, tool-in-hand, and applies that tool to the stone until its surface is perfectly even. But that stone has to fit into a certain space in the building. The stone is triangular. The space is rectangular. So the stone has to be chipped and chipped and chipped until the shape of the stone and the space in the building perfectly correspond. Then into the space the stone is fitted. The stone is not there to be ornamental; it is there to be part of the building. Oh, it is not a lot of ornamental stones that are needed. In many gatherings there is quite a display of beautiful stones, but I am afraid there has not been a building up of the stones into a house. What God wants is not a lot of precious stones; He wants a spiritual house.