Ephesians 2 | Wade Branch

Great day to be here together to worship God.

We have a great crowd this morning.

We have a lot of visitors. We may have more visitors than

our own this morning. We have so many who are either

traveling or sticking out. And so thank you for filling

their seats today. Thank you for being here.

And we pray you are just as involved in this worship as

anyone else here today, because our goal is to glorify God.

And we are happy to do that with you.

And hopefully through the singing, through the prayers,

through the communing, through the teaching of God's word, we

can do that together. If you weren't here last week or

last time I taught, we were starting the study in the book

of Ephesians and we're going to pick up in Ephesians Chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And we're going to try to cover this whole chapter today in this

lesson. So Ephesians Chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

I'll do a very brief recap. I know I've maybe got a little

too and recap in the past and spent too much time reviewing,

but it's so good to remind ourselves the flow of these

letters because we read this book and it's all sectioned out

nicely. But they just got this letter to

the Church of Ephesians as one long scroll or pages of

documents altogether. So it's helpful to get the flow

of it. I've got the kind of the keynote

of this chapter. I've labeled it as the verse

that says that we've been brought near by the blood of

Christ. And I've got a picture of a

diamond with a dark background here.

Because I think what Paul does in the in this chapter is he

tries to set a very intentional stage for the gospel that they

have accepted and and been brought into and he has to 1st

paint a very dark background. If I were to have a diamond

sitting in a in a very lit up room with white and everything,

you couldn't really see it very well.

But if I take a diamond and I place it on a piece of black

velvet, I can see the beauty of that diamond and all of its

glimmering angles because of the blackness behind it.

And I think that Paul does that as he lays out this this chapter

is he starts to paint a very dark picture of what things look

like before this gospel and before this, bringing near by

the gospel and the blood of Christ that he's going to talk

about. So if you're wondering why

that's the meaning there. So a couple of overview points

again. Remember, the purpose of this

letter was #1 to remind Christians of their spiritual

blessings in Christ, and #2 to exhort Christians to have a walk

that is worthy of the calling that they are called by.

So these are kind of the overview.

Remember, this book is broken into 3 chapters of teaching and

then three chapters of application.

So we're in the first couple chapters still where he's

teaching us about what it means to be in Christ and our riches

that are in Christ. So we already already covered

our spiritual possessions in Christ.

Today we're going to be getting into our spiritual position in

Christ. We're going to talk about how we

are raised and seated with Jesus by Jesus on the throne, where

Jesus is raised on the throne and we are reconciled and set

into the temple. And then just to give you an

idea of where he's going next, he's going to talk about our

responsibility in Christ going on in Chapter 4.

So all these things we're going to talk about today, it's going

to sound ripped. It's going to sound like we are

brought in, we are welcomed, we are everything we can imagine

being. And he's going to say then and

the last three chapters of this book.

So here's what you should be doing.

It has to manifest itself in your walk.

And he's going to talk about walking unity with the body of

Christ. So it's important to be a member

of a church because that is the body, the fullness of him who

feels All in all we read last week and he's going to call us

to walk in purity and harmony and walk in victory.

OK, so that's the overview of the book.

Let's get a running start. From last chapter we read that

Paul was saying that he wanted that the God of our Lord Jesus

Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom

and revelation. He wanted something to be

revealed to them, the knowledge of him, the knowledge of God.

Paul wanted a knowledge of God to be revealed to him.

How? That the eyes of your

understanding would be enlightened.

That you may know what is the hope of his calling?

What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the

Saints? And what is the exceeding

greatness of his power toward us, who believe according to the

working of His mighty power, which he worked in Christ, when

He raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in

the heavenly places? Far above all principality and

power, and might and dominion in every name that is named not

only in this age, but also in that age which is to come, the

last couple verses of the last chapter.

And He put all things under Jesus feet his feet, and gave

him to be head over all things to the church, which is his

body, the fullness of him who fills All in all.

So that's the flow we have now we're picking up in Ephesians

chapter two. He starts out by saying And you

who were dead and trespasses and sins.

OK, so I have here this phrase he made alive, kind of darkened

out. And.

And the reason is, if you look at your Bible, it's in italics.

If you read a passage of scripture or it's usually just a

couple words, they're in italics, It's because that was

not originally there in the text when they translated.

The italics portion will be something that translators put

there for clarity's sake. OK, he's going to say this

phrase that we were made alive shortly after this, but he

actually didn't say it right here in the original.

So he's starting out with pure darkness in this.

In this portrayal of what's going on, he says and you who

were dead and trespasses and sins.

So he makes a distinction here. He says trespasses and sins.

And for my study, the reason I could or the reason being I

believe is sins is a very maybe a a general way of saying you

missed the mark. That's what the word sin

literally came from. As I understand in the Old

English, if you were to be an Archer and you would shoot at an

opening or a target and miss it, they would say you were a

Sinner, you missed the mark. And the concept is, from what I

can picture is we can still be trying and we can miss the mark.

We messed up. We sin even sometimes when we're

trying to do what's right. That's how weak we are as

humans. But trespasses is more of an

overt if you trespass, you're going over a boundary.

Usually know you're getting into something you shouldn't be into,

and it's more willful. And he says you who are dead and

trespasses and sins and missing the mark and overstepping God's

boundaries. Maybe even you knew it.

You were dead. And he's starting out by saying

you because there's a distinction we set up in the

first chapter between you and we.

Paul was a Jew, and he's writing to people who some of them were

Jews, some of them were Gentiles.

Gentile just means they weren't a Jew.

So some of these people had been God's followers throughout

history. They were Jews.

Other people had no history following God.

They were Gentiles. So he's saying you Gentiles who

haven't had history following God, were dead.

This chapter is a spiritual recalibration for reality.

We don't see ourselves and we're insane.

We don't look at ourselves like we're dead men walking.

There's a show called The Walking Dead.

It's all about zombies. He says you were zombies.

Basically, you were dead while you were walking.

We don't see ourselves like that.

We're in sin. We think I'm doing what I want.

We really don't want to know it's best for us.

Sometimes we were dead in trespasses and sins in what you

once walked. So remember, he's not writing to

a bunch of people who haven't been converted yet.

He's writing to people who were once that way, and if we are

going to be the people of God, we have to make it so that it

was a once stay. We can't be a part of God's

family and just make it part of who we always are, being dead

and sin. He's called us beyond that.

Past that, he says. In which you once walked

according to the course of this world, according to the Prince

of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the Sons

of Disobedience. We talked about predestination

in the first chapter, about how God had a plan that was laid out

ahead of time. He didn't say, I'm going to save

this person and I'm not going to make I'm going to make that

person go to hell. He didn't do that.

He laid out and predetermined a plan that said whoever will

follow me, I will save them and give them everlasting life.

Satan has some of his own predestination that goes on.

So he kind of contrasts the two here by saying that Satan had a

predetermined path. He had a course of the world

that he is trying to manipulate the world with.

And it's it's a very, it's a very real picture to be kind of

like a puppet master. He doesn't say, doesn't decide

for us to make wrongs, but he he's trying to lead us into a

course, into a path that would be of disobedience to God.

We don't see ourselves like this, right?

We think we're doing what we want when we sin, but we're not.

We're walking according to Satan's purposes when we

following him. And you know, in English,

there's there's multiple words for a walk.

You could, you could say I was walking with a purpose to get to

the back door. You know, if you're having to

use the restroom during services, after services, you

bolted to the back door. You have a purpose.

But if you're walking through the mall, you're just meandering

through. I think that's the sense in what

she's saying here. We were just meandering through

life without purpose, without true direction or reason.

We were being led, according to the Prince of the power of the

air, a dead fish can follow a stream.

It takes something that's living to go upstream.

Takes a living fish to go upstream against the current, he

said You were dead. According to the Prince of the

Power of the Air, who now works in the Sons of Disobedience,

he's going to talk about the sons of God and the sons of

disobedience and sonship just basically means that's who

you're putting yourself in line with.

If we follow Satan, we're putting ourselves in line with

him like we are his descendants. But it says that he's the

Prince. Remember, there's only one king

of kings and Lord of the Lords, and it's not Satan.

Satan has temporary power here on Earth.

He's a Prince. He has power on earth, but it's

not ultimate Among whom we all, among whom also we all once

conducted ourselves. So before he was saying this to

the Gentiles, to the people who hadn't followed God in the past,

but now he's saying we all did it, Paul.

And another point said, I, you know, I tried to serve God my

whole life. He said it innocent, you know,

with a good conscience. But it doesn't mean that Paul

didn't sin. It doesn't mean even though Paul

might have been trying, it doesn't mean that he wasn't

living according to the lust of the flesh.

He said we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our

flesh. Lust just means strong desires,

passions, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,

all of us. You know, sometimes I think

about passions or lust being like anger.

You know, lashing out, Want to hit somebody, Maybe lust for

power or even a sexual lust. That's what usually we think of.

Do you know any sin that I commit?

Any selfish ambition, any jealousy, any pride in my heart,

any gossip, any of those things we might call white collar sins?

Those are lusts of the flesh. We are trying to fulfill a

desire for something in us. That's not good.

When we are trying to undermine somebody else and to to to

slander them or say evil things about people back biting, there

is a desire of either the mind or the flesh that we shouldn't

be trying to satisfy, he says. And we were by nature children

of wrath. Now some people say that and and

imply that OK, see we were sinners from the get go for the

moment you're bored, you were in Sinner.

It's just your nature. Well no.

There's plenty of passions that say that children are innocent.

Children are the are pure before they reach a point where they

start making decisions on right or wrong.

So we weren't born with sin in our heart, but it's becomes

nature when it just becomes your habit.

You know, you could say, oh, it's just his nature to be late

to work. Was he born late to work person?

No. He chooses to make a habit of

being late to work. The Bible says we were by

nature. It was who we became.

We became children of wrath. There it is again, lining

ourselves up behind, behind Satan.

It's who we were lining ourself up with.

It's who we became. It was so natural to us, just as

the others, you know, little side note here, little pause.

Sometimes we feel like and the world tries to talk to us like

there is no enjoyment in the Christian life.

And sometimes we act like that and that is absolutely backwards

and wrong from the get go when we when it says here that we

were fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

The key here is that it's saying we once conducted ourselves.

It's not that we can't have lives that are fulfilled and

joyful and desire feeling, we can have desires that are

fulfilled. The problem is when we try to

conduct ourselves. And Psalm 37 verse four says

this wonderfully. I love this verse.

It says delight yourself also in the Lord.

Make the Lord the things that you delight yourself in and then

He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Christians should be people who live fulfilled desire lives.

If we are just Christian enough to see how God wants us to be,

but we really don't get there, we don't really feel like doing

it, then we haven't even gotten to the good party yet.

If people try to talk to you like your life is unfulfilled

and you don't get to live by desires, that's just wrong.

We have to change our desires and ask God to change our

desires within us. Have you ever had something you

thought you would never enjoy doing, But then now you're like

God. That was God for me.

I never thought golf was going to be anything fun, enjoyable.

I was, you know, in high school, you're playing basketball,

you're playing baseball, football, you're playing the

sports that are, you know, upbeat.

And there's a lot of action and commotion.

And I thought, how in the world do people just go out there and

do that dumb sport when there's a ball laying on the ground,

they slap it around. I thought it was just so dumb.

I thought there's no way I'll never, I'll never enjoy that

game. Maybe you've had things you

insert anything that you thought you wouldn't like and that you

now like, what changed? Well, for me, first of all, I

surrounded myself with people to share it with that were good

people. When I moved here, I didn't have

all people who played baseball, basketball, football.

But when I came here, Frank and and some of the others here

played golf and so I was able to play golf with them.

I had a good time. I surrounded myself with people

to share that with. It took effort to to get to the

point that I now really enjoy playing golf.

I had to put in a lot of effort. Or I just go out there and try,

OK, you have to try something. I had to have challenges.

You know when when you go out to golf for the first time, you're

like, God, this can't be that hard.

You line up and you Shank it. Most of us still do, but you

Shank most balls. When you first start, you

realize how hard it is to do well.

And so you get a kind of a reference point for what success

is. You get a reference point for

how hard it is to be successful in this game.

Golf is incredibly challenging. And then you you have that one

shot. People say there's a there's a

famous phrase I hate golf. I hate golf.

Nice shot. I love golf.

You will have small successes if you play the game that keep you

coming back. This is how, in my estimation,

you change your perspective on something you don't like, that

you then begin to like. You have to surround yourself

with people to share it with their good people.

You have to put in some effort, and when you put an effort,

you're going to find challenges, and those challenges make the

victory so much sweeter and you can start to appreciate the walk

of whatever it is. That's true with golf, I think

it's true with the Christian life.

And you know what? You may have to overcome certain

things. And golf you may, you might have

to overcome previous messages that you said or the other

people said to you, what a dumb sport.

You may have to overcome that later when it gets hard, you

might want to say, oh, this is such a dumb sport.

You may have to overcome that. You may have to overcome past

failures because when you fail, it makes you think, I just

can't. People say that.

I just can't do it. It's not true.

But okay, it's how they feel. You may have to overcome a fear

of how others see you. You know, I've had people, I'd

say, oh, come out with us just because I want to spend some

time with so and so and and it's a good way to get out there

together, Be outside and they say I'll just feel bad holding

everybody else back. You may feel that way about the

Christian life, that if you get started in this Christian walk,

then we subject to criticism. You're going to be surrounded by

people who are holier and OK, hopefully we're not really like

that. Hopefully you're going to see

once you surround yourself with people, that we're all here for

the same purpose. You may have to overcome things

that make it not enjoyable to you, but what you're going to

notice is that we can start to delight ourselves in the Lord,

and God will fulfill us in those desires.

May we pray that individually and collectively that God will

make us desire Him and His ways so that we could be fulfilled in

Him. It's the best kind.

But God verse four, who is rich in mercy because of His great

love with which He loved us even when we were dead in trespasses,

he made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. So here's where he says that

this is where he introduces the light.

He's been all darkness and gloom.

And now he starts to introduce that we've been made alive, that

there's this great God. And sometimes we get numb to

this. As Christians we read this

phrase and we get numb to it. And so this is a good spiritual

recalibration. I want you to think for a second

picture of God who does not love you.

Sometimes we we start to think that just because our our minds

like can we can you really love us but no, picture it picture of

God who does not love you. That's Greek gods during this

time they were gods but they had nothing to do with the people.

They didn't really care about them.

Picture of God who is not rich in mercy, who does not care

about being merciful to you, who does not love you, and who when

He saw you dead, said too bad, kick the dead body off to the

side. Picture of God who thinks that

way because we need to recalibrate to appreciate

sometimes how rich God's mercy is for us, how great His love

for us is, so that when he saw us dead in our sins, he didn't

write us off, He didn't kick us to the curb.

He has a persevering love that still sent Jesus to die for us,

we all. And there's people in this room

who I know have gone through difficult things for people you

love. Maybe it's your children who

have put you through, maybe the ringer, some of the things that

you've been long-suffering in with them.

Maybe it's a spouse. Maybe it's, you know, in the

sense that maybe you had to care for a spouse.

There's people in here that because of great love, you have

done great things for people in your life.

I want us to connect with God, to understand that's how God's

great love is toward us. That though we were dead, though

we were rejecting. You know, that's what that's

what deadness implies. Deadness implies lifeless,

Apathy, spiritual apathy, Unresponsive, cold, numb,

hopeless. If it's spiritually, maybe it's

rude. It's unwilling to change

spiritually. Maybe we've we've seen that in

people's lives around us. So why do we continue to show a

rich love toward others and and great love and and mercy toward

others? Why do we keep sharing the

gospel or sharing the love with others?

Because God did that for us. We learned that He love.

We love because he first loved us, even when we were dead.

God loved us so in our lives, as there's people in your life who

are just not having any of your business, sometimes the people

who are most adamantly opposed to your faith are the people

who, in my experience, in people's lives around me, Those

people are the ones sometimes the ones that flip sooner.

Maybe there's people who are dead in their center around you.

Why keep doing it? Why keep showing them love and

mercy and kindness and being the light when it's unresponsive and

boring? Because God did that for us.

And as soon as we lose sight of that, as soon as we lose sight

of the fact that we were dead and God loved us and that was

merciful to us, we will not show mercy to others.

I believe May we be merciful and show a persevering love toward

others because God made us alive together with Christ, and we've

been saved by God's grace. Verse 6.

And raised us up together and made us sit together in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So God having saved us by grace,

he raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly

places. I get a very paternal image when

I read this, almost like a father scooping one of some

children up and and and raising them to sit together in these

heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he

might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness

toward us in Christ Jesus. You know, sometimes when we

think about heaven we think about this richness and God

showing the the exceeding riches of his grace.

Sometimes people think heaven's boring or whatever.

Would God talk about richness and exceeding richness and

kindness if it was some mundane, boring place?

No. And when we get to heaven, we're

going to be overflowing with praises for the richness and the

goodness and the greatness. It's going to come out of us

because that's how great heaven is, he says.

Ages to come. There have been several ages

that have passed in this in this earth.

We think about the patriarchal age when we had the early

fathers who from Adam to you might say to Moses, you had the

patriarchs who led their families.

You have the mosaic age. Once Moses came and delivered

the Old Testament law, there's thousands of years covered in

that spam. Then we have the Christian age

where Jesus coming in, the Messianic age, where Jesus is

now the Messiah and he has come and he died and he has set up

his church. We have the Christian age today.

There have been ages and those ages are thousands of years.

I think what he's trying to get us to zoom out to is beyond our

personal life, beyond our struggles, beyond our daytoday,

mundane frustrations and and anxieties.

He wants to zoom out and see the big picture that there are ages

to come. And while it might not be

separated like it was, there are going to be massive amounts of

time that we that we span in the in eternity.

And God wants to list up, lift us up with Jesus and show us

exceeding riches of his grace and kindness in Christ Jesus.

Can you believe that's said about you.

You know we have tunnel vision and I don't know about you, but

probably most people in this room are thinking about at the

most maybe year out and you're just like, you know I've got

this coming to my year. I've got these plans and this

and that. But probably many people are

thinking about the next month. That's me.

I'm thinking about the next month.

Right now. I've got some big projects lined

up. I've got to get done.

I've got, yeah, I've got some stuff finished and I've got kind

of a lot of my plate. This next month, maybe for you

it's the next week. Maybe you've got a lot of hard

stuff. Maybe you got some things

they're wearing on you. Maybe for some people it's just

through today. If you're carrying burdens, you

get to the point where you just have to get through today.

That's that's man, and that's God.

Give me what I need just to get through today.

And I think that's a survival instinct.

If you are trying to just get through something difficult

right now, survival instinct says focus on this.

Don't worry about months, years, anything like that.

You just need to focus on them. But God wants us to zoom out

because spiritually we need it. Spiritually we need to zoom out

and say, yes, there are days and and and within days there are

weeks and within weeks there are months and months and years and

years and centuries and and millennia.

And this is the perspective we God wants us to see that this is

all small. If there are ages to come, there

are thousands and years, thousands of years to come.

Amazing Grace, the song says. When we've been here 10,000

years. When we've been there 10,000

years, bright, shiny as the sun, we will have no less days,

10,000 years in to our heavenly experience, The eternal

experience, 10,000 years in probably longer than the world

has been around. There's not going to be one day

less ahead of us than there is behind us.

We need that spiritual perspective because this life

gets difficult. He wants to show us, I think of

a of a good father that can just welcome his children and show

him this is all for you. He wants to show us and open the

doors to us, the exceeding riches of his grace and the

kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

He didn't have to be that God, but he is and he did do what he

did for us. One man said one way to see the

greatness of the grace of God is to see how he begs man to

receive it. When we offer a gift to someone

and they refuse it, we are likely to allow them to refuse

and leave them alone. God does not do this with us.

Even when we refuse his mercy, He reaches into a storehouse of

grace and persists with us, begging us to receive the free

gift. This is backed up by Second

2 Corinthians 5:20

Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20. It says therefore we Speaking of

the teachers of God's word, are ambassadors for Christ, God

making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of

Christ to be reconciled to God. How great is the grace of God?

Sometimes when we convert to God's ways we can't see how

people would just won't throw away their old life and come

join the Christian walk. Reasonably so.

But we have been that person. Verse 8 of Ephesians chapter two

goes on to say for by grace you have been saved through faith,

and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works

less anyone should boast. So we're going to start to turn

this diamond and see the different angles on it.

And sometimes people get caught up and explain this a certain

way and and they neglect the other angles of the diamond if

that makes any sense. We are saved through faith but

it is a gift of God our salvation and it's not of works

less we should both so we can't walk and say man I did so good

in this life I I earned myself a wonderful home in heaven.

We can't do that. Our faith is one person

described it as is like a hose. If you were thirsty and you go

to drink from a hose, the hose did not quench your thirst.

The hose brought the water to you, but the waters was

satisfied your thirst. Maybe that maybe that's a good

analogy to help explain that faith brings may bring us to God

and they connect us to the water source, but it is God's saving

God's gift that saves us. It is the water that quenches.

It is God's saving grace that gives us the salvation that he

that we have lest anyone should boast.

We have nothing to boast about. We have nothing to pride

ourselves in. For we are His workmanship.

Why does it matter that we should not boast in our own

works? Because it's not even our own

works. It says we are His workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared

beforehand that we should walk in them.

I get a picture of a Craftsman when I think of this, and we

have this idea then that more that predestination is still

floating through here. Not that God chose us

individually, but God predetermined and preplan.

They're going to works that his people are going to do.

We don't have to do a PhD in research studies on how to do

good in life because God gave us a clear plan.

He prepared good works for us. We know what's right and wrong.

God prepared them for us that we should walk in them.

So it's not our great works, we're just walking in God's

ways. That's the beauty of God's plan.

It's not about us at all, but this does encourage me as I

think about you know a a Craftsman and and workmanship.

I like to do art myself. I haven't done it in a long

time. I like to do woodworking and if

I have a piece of craft that I have worked on and I am

satisfied and happy with it, man, it's there's a sense of

pride and joy that comes with like you know, you go out to

your your portfolio wherever you have it.

Maybe it's woodwork stored away and you go, man, I'm really

happy with how this turned out. I put I was able to get a lot of

working on this project and I feel good about that.

But there's those other projects where I go into and I'm like,

oh, I never finished that. And that's not to be

condescending in any way, but I more personally want to be

someone who God looks at and is proud of his workmanship.

I'm not not pridefully, because it's not about me after all.

But I want God to be happy with his work in me.

As we think about ways to positively change our mindset

away from just being fear driven and afraid of condemnation.

That's a positive outlook. You know what?

God can be happy with me. Then we can be a workmanship

that He's proud of. Now.

Unlike tool, or unlike a piece of wood or or a black canvas,

the canvas has no say over what happens.

We are different than that. We can.

We decide whether we will be worked on by God, but the point

is I want to be well worth it. God is proud of to let him work

on me. Verse 11.

Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh.

So he's kind of making that distinction again here between

Jew and Gentile who were once Gentiles in the flesh who are

called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision meaning

the flesh by hands. This is referencing the Old

Testament law. You had to be circumcised if

you're a male. So you, who were called the

uncircumcision people, who were Gentiles, that at that time you

were without Christ, put yourself for a second in the

shoes of not being able to access Jesus.

These Gentiles were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and

strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and

without God in the world. From the beginning of time, God

told his people he had a blessing for them, He had a

promise for his people. But the Gentiles were strangers

and aliens from that. They have no place in it.

They were without God in the world.

There's a sense of being stranded on earth.

If you think about that the Gentiles were stranded on earth,

Raise your hand if you can trace your lineage back to the 12

tribes of Israel. I feel comfortable asking that

because I know none of us can. The records were destroyed.

No one in this room can prove that you are tied to God's

lineage. Therefore, I'm a gentile.

You're a Gentile. We cannot prove our connection

to God's family. From the start we were all

stranded on earth. There was no way off this earth,

only down into the ground. But now in Christ, you who are

once a far off, you heard once on the outside looking into this

great fellowship of God's people, he said.

Now you have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

We don't have to live on the outside looking in the Fomo, the

fear of missing out on God's plan.

We have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He himself

is our peace. Jesus is our peace.

Who has made both one. He's taking these both these

Jews and these Gentiles, and he's made us both one.

And he's broken down the middle wall of separation.

The middle wall of separation. If you go to the Old Testament

time, sorry for the blurred picture.

This is what it would have looked like in their Old

Testament Tabernacle, their place of worship.

Remember, the most Holy place is like this little square room.

Then you have the holy place. Just for a quick refresher, this

special place where's where God God's presence was among his

people. This special place called the

Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest.

One man could go in once a year to be in the presence of God

once a year. It was so dangerous and

sometimes intimidating they had to tie a rope to his foot

because if he died in there, no one else could go in.

It was that sacred and. Then you from there you have the

holy place where the priests would go in and do their daily

things. Then you go out from there.

You'd have the court of Israel where Jews could go.

Then you had the court of women where Jewish women could go.

And then outside of that you had the court of the Gentiles.

If you were a proselyte, meaning you were converted to Judaism,

to God's people from being outside.

This is as close as you could get.

And they had a wall separating. As I understand it was about 5

feet high. You could not go inside if you

did. There used to be signage posted

around, carved in stone and painted in red lettering, and

here is a picture of what one might have, what one of the old

Ones look like, their signage warned the Gentiles, saying No

foreigner is allowed within that balustrade and embankment about

the sanctuary. The sanctuary is God's place.

Whoever is caught violating this rule will be personally

responsible for his ensuing death.

This was no joke. You go in there and people go

crazy. Here's an example.

Acts chapter 21, verse 28. Jews from Asia seeing him.

Acts 21:28

So they were seeing, I believe, is Paul coming in to the temple.

They stirred up the whole crowd and lay hands on him crying out.

So they're going to accuse of something that didn't really

happen, but they thought this happened.

They said men of Israel help. This is the man who teaches all

men everywhere against the people, the law and this place.

And furthermore, he also brought Greeks into the temple and he

has defiled this holy place. They were, they were stirring up

an up war because of this. That's how big of a deal it was

if you were a Gentile. And they thought this happened.

It didn't really happen. But they thought the Gentiles

were brought in and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

This guy came in and he crossed the line.

We have carved stone to show you can't go in here.

That's why when it says that Jesus has broken down the middle

wall of separation, that's that wall of separation.

The law that was keeping out the Gentiles has now been broken

down by Jesus Christ. Having abolished in his own

flesh, they took his flesh to abolish it.

The enmity, the separation, the the angst, the the problems that

were in that relationship, that is the law of commandments

contained in ordinances so as to create himself one new man from

the two. God took Juke, he took Gentiles.

Bam. Now they're one, thus making

peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in

one body through the cross. We are that one body.

Bible tells us we are the church, the one body.

Through the cross, therefore putting to, thereby putting to

death the enmity Jesus did the great greatest switch around

ever. He through his own death, put to

death, suffering, pain, separation, death.

Self it took. His death, though to put to

death the enmity. Verse 17 And he came and

preached peace to you who were a far off, who was a far off the

Gentiles, and to those who were near, Who were those who were

near the Jews, the Jews were near.

He preached peace to both Jew and Gentile, for through him we

both have access by 1 spirit to the Father.

We don't stand here. Some people in this audience say

I'm Jewish, so I've got this in with God and you guys have to

crawl on your knees up here. No, we all come with one spirit.

We all come in the same piece. We come in the same Ave. to the

father. We have the same plan.

How First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 through 13 says for as

1 Corinthians 12:12–13

the body is 1 and has many members but all the but all the

members of that one body being many are one body So also is

Christ. Here's the kicker for by 1

Spirit, that same phrase he just used in Ephesians.

By 1 Spirit we were all baptized into one body.

How do you, Jew in the body, how do we become one?

Jews had to be baptized into Christ.

So do Gentiles. On the day of Pentecost, they

were baptized and added to the Church.

We are baptized into that one body, whether Jews or Greeks,

whether slaves are free and of and have all been made to drink

into one Spirit. So that's how we both.

Have access to 1 Spirit through the Father, verse 19 of

Ephesians 2. Now, therefore, we're finishing

up here. You are no longer strangers and

foreigners, your fellow citizens.

With the Saints and members of the household of God.

This is true of the Gentiles. This is true of anyone in this

audience who has said you have an opportunity to be members and

fellow members in the household of God.

This isn't just citizenship, this is familial household.

This is members of God's family. We talked about that last week.

How awesome is that? You know there are people, maybe

there are people we know who suffer the consequences their

whole life of actions they make. For example, in the in the

education, if you're a teacher and you commit sexually indecent

acts with a minor, you will never be able to get a job in

that field again. You you will suffer the

consequences your whole life. There is nothing you can do.

Spiritually speaking. We are all members of the

household of God. And that's true.

No matter what you've done, none of us will be fit to sitting

here in this room this morning as members of the household of

God. We wouldn't.

None of us have the history, the pedigree to say, yeah, I'm, I'm

straight and narrow. I belong God's family.

No. But because of Jesus.

We are all members, despite our past of the household of God.

Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and

prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

As I understand, during that day they didn't have all the

concrete and stuff we have today, so they would have to go

to a field, find a big stone. And they would build everything

else off of that one stone. Because likely you're not gonna

have four big giant stones to build your building off of.

So you'd find one cornerstone, and you layout the rest of the

building off that corner. You'd square your walls.

You'd let that be the primary load carrier of the weight of

the building. Today we do something very

similar. We we pour foundation or some in

some circumstances. You have corner peers.

You have corner supports that are concrete, that hold up a

structure. That's a similar concept.

Here. The Christ is that cornerstone

where everything else is built off of it.

The apostles and prophets spread God's word and taught God's word

from the Holy Spirit. They built up that foundation.

It was all off of the chief cornerstone, Christ himself.

And we are being built up. In whom?

The whole building being fitted together.

That's us. We are being fitted together,

grows into a holy temple in the Lord and whom you also are being

built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

This is the conclusion of this chapter.

We are being built together. Sometimes it's easy for people

as members of a church to be like I just, I don't like them,

or I don't want to deal with people at church because I've

had too many bad experiences. Well, guess what?

We are being built together for a dwelling place of God.

This is bigger than us. This is bigger than my problems.

This is bigger than my don't like so's or whatever.

We have a bigger responsibility than to worry about our petty

concerns. People have done wrong things.

And that doesn't mean there aren't boundaries set.

That doesn't mean there's a whole lot to be said about that.

But as the big picture, may I treat the family of God like we

are being built up for a dwelling place of God.

It's not about me. It's about God.

If I'm going to be committed to an organization, it has to be

with this purpose. And if we're not committed to

being a member of the church, we're not committed to building

a dwelling place for God, how can we say that?

You know I want to follow God. Except if we're not going to

commit ourselves to building up God's dwelling place.

What a special. Responsibility to be able to

build up a place for God to dwell among us.

It's not this building. We were in Oregon last week.

We were worshipping on the side of a mountain.

It was beautiful. It was wonderful.

There wasn't a lot of people there.

So we can we're able to make it happen.

God doesn't dwell. Buildings made with.

Hands in the Old Testament, Solomon designed this elaborate

temple. Look how big it was.

These are people down here. It was golden and it was ornate.

It was carved. All these special images and

symbols, First Samuel 15, verse 20.

1 Samuel 15:20

Two has the Lord has a great delight and burnt offerings and

sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord the whole To

obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the

fat of Rams. This wasn't it for God.

God didn't need this, and so God didn't stop.

There in his plan, God's ultimate plan is this.

This building is nice. It doesn't matter.

God's ultimate plan is not. To be an ornate, beautiful

structure, It's for people like us to come together and lift him

up and to be committed to his cause, spreading his truth,

loving one another. Jesus says they will know, they

will know me. Jesus says by how we love one

another. Are we building up a church, a

dwelling place of God that respects God's greatest design

plans of all? God does not dwell in temples.

Made with hands, but in the hearts of his people.

In conclusion, take it away from this There is nothing one man

wrote. This list I thought, was pretty

fitting. There is nothing as noble as the

Church, seeing that as the temple of God.

There is nothing so worthy of reverence as the Church seeing

God who dwells in it. There is nothing so ancient

since the Patriarchs and Prophets worked to build it.

There is nothing so old, so solid, since Jesus Christ is the

foundation of it. There is nothing so high since

it reaches as high as the heavenly places in Christ.

There is nothing so perfect and well proportioned.

Since the Holy Spirit is the architect, you think you're not

the way you should be in this house.

God has a place for you in the building.

God's not a bad architect, he knows.

What he's doing there is nothing more beautiful because it is

adorned with the building stones of every age, every place, every

people. From the highest kings to the

lowest peasants, with the most brilliant scientists and the

simplest believers. There is nothing more spacious,

since it is spread over the whole earth and takes in all who

have washed the robes and made them white in the blood of the

Lamb. There is nothing so divine,

since it is a living building, animated and inhabited by the

Holy Spirit. I challenge all of us.

Whether we are committed to being here or whether maybe you

don't come all that often to question how you.

Are being made into a support for God's body here on earth.

How are you committed to this cause, making that a theme of

your life that I'm going to be a member of this organization?

We're not perfect. We go around the room.

None of us are perfect by any means.

But we will work together for one common purpose, to glorify

God on this earth. And there's in this visual they

had some steps. You could take or leave this

visual. It's just maybe visual aid.

The steps are something that we do to get into this body.

The Bible says we have to hear before we can believe.

Faith coming by, hearing, hearing by the word of God, We

have to believe. We have to be willing to repent.

Luke 13 and three We have to be willing to change our life and

to not walk in the course of this world, but be conformed to

him who called us. We have to be willing to confess

that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Romans 10/9 and 10, and be

baptized as we read in that one Spirit and be added to the body

mark 16 and 16. Once you're added to the Church,

once you remember, that's just where the journey begins.

We don't stop there. This is where the walk starts

and we mess up. And if you are someone who needs

the prayers of the Church to get on the right path for support,

whatever means we have this time now set set aside in the

invitation. But this isn't the only time you

can come anytime. Talk to one of us and we can

work things out of whatever needs you have.

Please come while we stand and while we sing.

We thank you for listening to. Our podcast put on by the Church

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