Alright, good to see you all
again this evening. Go to Ephesians, the second chapter
with me. Ephesians, the second chapter. It must have been a special Lord's
Day morning when whoever the messenger was or the servant
of the Lord was that got up at the church at Ephesus and said,
A special letter I want to read to you folks this morning is from our dear brother Paul.
You know, he's over there in prison in Rome. And he's over there because he
sets forth the gospel of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made a lot of enemies. The
Jews were against him, stirred up the Romans against him, and he's over there suffering. But
he wrote a letter to us. And my friends, it's not just
an ordinary letter. This is the very Word of God. Then he began to read the letter.
And he didn't begin by reading. as our brother read tonight,
and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin.
That's like the second page of the letter. He began at the beginning. And I don't think we'd be doing
justice to the second chapter unless we just review a bit of
the first chapter. You see, if somebody wrote you
a letter telling you about various things. Why, if you left off
the first page of the letter and just went directly to the
second page, you would have missed out on a whole lot, maybe the
very foundation of what was said, and then everything else is going
to say based on chapter one, or based on the first page of
the letter. So, let's go back and revisit chapter one just
briefly and touch on a few things that We mentioned last night
some things we didn't mention last night in chapter 1 of this
great book. You know, to me, chapter 1 is
God's declaration of grace. It's a declaration of what God
in Christ Jesus has done for undeserving sinners. It's all
about the free and sovereign grace of our Lord. And immediately
we're escorted into the eternal chambers of God. And we're confronted
with things that are absolutely glorious. Blessings for the sinner. In fact, we're informed that
we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. He says that right at the beginning.
After He introduces Himself, has a few words of introduction
for the Ephesian believers, He goes right into His doxology. And as we said last night, He
doesn't finish that doxology until He gets to the end of chapter
3. And he begins by speaking about God's election of some
unto salvation. Oh, what a blessed truth. What
a blessed truth. Our Lord looked at His disciples.
There's Peter and James and John and the rest of the disciples.
And He said, you didn't choose Me. You know that. You didn't choose Me. I chose
you. I chose you. David said, blessed
is the man whom God chooses and causes him to approach unto Him. Blessed is that man. Happy, well
off, to be envied is that man whom God sets His love on in
Christ Jesus. Blessed, happy is that woman. whom God gave to His Son in covenant
grace for safekeeping, gave to the surety and everlasting love,
blessed, happy, well off to be envied, is that dear one who
is found in Christ in God's eternal covenant of grace. He starts
off talking about election. Now, election is not salvation,
but it is unto salvation. It is unto salvation. And we
learn in the first chapter that this election took place before
the world was made, before God made anything. God ordained salvation
for a multitude which we can't number, chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Our names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before God flung the first star into space. Before God made the earth, He
ordained us to be His. He appointed us to be the Bride
of Christ, the Church of the Living God, God's children. How long have we been God's children? Forever we've been God's children. And because we are God's children,
He sends the Spirit of His grace into our hearts who teaches us
to cry, Abba, Father. All these things happened before
the world began. Fixed in the mind of God, in
His eternal council chambers, He chose us unto salvation before
the world began. And so we read of our Savior.
He's the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Well,
preacher, how do I know I'm one of God's elect? Is there any
way to know? Peter says, make your calling
and election sure. You make sure of your election
by your calling. Have you been called? Do you
believe on the Savior? It says in Acts 13, verse 48,
as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Are you a believer? Do you believe on Christ? He is your righteousness? He
is your life? He is your peace? He is your
all in all. He is everything to you. He has
been made of God to be your wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption that you may say in your heart, I glory only in
Him. Do you glory only in Christ?
You say, He's everything to me. He's my Lord. He's my Savior. He's my prophet. I sit at His
feet to learn. He's my priest. He offered the
sacrifice to God. He's my King. I bow to Him as
my Lord. I worship Him. You believe Him. And the fact that you believe,
that's evidence of your election. That's evidence you were chosen
in grace in Christ before the foundation of the world. And
then he says that these who are elected, chosen in Christ, were
chosen to be holy and blameless. Holy and blameless. How in the
world can a sinner be holy and blameless before God? Holy and blameless. We are holy
and blameless in that One who is holy and blameless in and
of Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ I am as holy as He
is. Scott Richardson said it so well,
how good have you got to be before God will accept you? You have
got to be as good as God. How can I be as good as God?
I am a wiggling maggot. I am a worm of the dust. I am
a sinful, corrupt, wretched being. How can God Almighty in the purity
of His holiness and righteousness, how can He accept me in His Son? In His Son. And in the Lord Jesus
Christ, I am received, I am accepted in the Beloved, And I'm welcomed. I'm welcomed by the Father. And
He'll never turn me away, Gary. Because I come to Him through
the righteousness of somebody else. I come to Him on the basis
of the debt paid by somebody else. I come to Him on the basis
of the blood of somebody else. The works of somebody else. Is
salvation by works? Yes, it's by works. Christ's
works. He did the work. He did the work
for me. It satisfied God. And I tell
you, Pastor, I'm satisfied with Him, aren't you? I'm satisfied
with Him. I'm satisfied for Him to get
all the glory and all the praise. I boasted Him. It says here,
look at verse 7 of Ephesians 1, "...in whom we have redemption
through His blood." Let me give you I'll give you a little outline.
Here's the purchaser of redemption. In whom? Salvation's in whom,
isn't it? Salvation's in Christ. He's the
purchaser. He bought us. He paid our debt. Everything we owed to divine
justice. And I don't even know how much
we did owe. We owed an infinite debt. to an infinitely holy God. But all that we owed, He paid. He paid it in full. And He said
on the cross, it is finished. All was done as God Almighty
would have it to be done. In whom? He is the purchaser
of redemption. Here are the objects of redemption.
Us. In whom? We have redemption. Us. Us sinners. Redeemed by the blood of Christ.
Here's the fact of redemption. We have. We got it. Can I put it this way? It's a
done deal. Huh? That's a transaction that's
already been taken care of. It's already been taken care
of. And our Lord Jesus hung on that cross. bearing our sins
in His own body on the tree, yea, having been made to be sin
for us, that one who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. He and the Father took care of
our salvation. Redemption was right then and
there accomplished. He didn't try to redeem us. He
didn't put forth an effort to redeem us. He obtained eternal
redemption for us, is what the Scripture says. And all that we owed to divine
justice, that infinite debt, the Savior paid. And He paid
it in full. That's the price of redemption
through His blood. What does it cost for sinners
to be saved? The blood of Christ. What does
that mean? What does that mean? It means
His death. That's what it means. He shed a few drops of blood
when He circumcised, but that didn't redeem us. The Scripture
says He swept, as it were, great drops of blood in the garden.
That didn't redeem us. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. When it says we have redemption
through His blood, it means He died. He died, because that's
what justice demanded. The loss of the soul that sinneth
shall die. The wages of sin is death." Now,
somebody's going to die. Are you going to die? I'm going
to die? Or a suitable substitute's going
to die? And God, in His infinite wisdom, found a suitable substitute. I have found a ransom, what the
Father said. Let them go free. I found a ransom. The results of redemption, forgiveness
of sins. This is beautifully illustrated.
Remember on the Day of Atonement, Aaron chose out two goats. He
cast lots upon them, one lot for the Lord and one lot for the scapegoat.
And the lot for the Lord fell on one goat and as a sin offering,
they died. He died. And Aaron took the blood
and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. And that lot for the scapegoat
that fell on the scapegoat, that scapegoat was brought out in
front of all the congregation of Israel. And Aaron laid his hands on that
scapegoat. I can see him, can't you? Can't
you see him, Pastor? I can see him. He laid his hands
on that scapegoat. And that symbolized a transference
of guilt. He confessed all the sins of
Israel. Now, we know that didn't redeem
anybody, did it? Because Hebrews 10 says, the
blood of bulls and goats couldn't put away sin. But it symbolized
what Christ would do. You see, that first goat that
died, that's redemption through His blood. That's the death of
Christ. That's justice slaying Him. The
scapegoat indicates, it pictures the forgiveness of sins. What
happened as a result of the death of the Son of God? Forgiveness
of sins. Aaron put his hands on that goat,
confessed the sins of Israel, and then he looked for a fit
man. That's Christ. That's Christ. He looked for
a fit man. He said, Brother, come up here.
I want you to take this goat, and I want you to lead it way
out yonder in the wilderness. And we're not going anywhere.
We'll stay right here. We'll be here when you get back.
You take it plumb out of sight, release it out there in the wilderness."
And this fit man led that goat out there. And remember, those
sins had symbolically been transferred to that goat. And there he goes
leading that goat down there. They all watched him go. There
goes Brother So-and-so. He went, I'm out of sight. I
can't see him anymore. You see him? You fellows that
are real tall, can you see him? I can't see him anymore. And
they didn't dismiss. They waited. And a little bit
they looked and said, I see him. He's coming back. He don't have
that goat anymore. They're gone. The goat's gone. The sin's gone. We have forgiveness
through His blood. Our sins are gone. We used to
sing that little chorus, gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins
are gone. Buried in the deepest sea. Yes,
that's good enough for me. Cast behind God's back. That's
good enough for me. God said, your sins and iniquities,
well, I remember no more. That's good enough for me. Praise
God, my sins are gone. That's what He taught, election
and redemption. These are acts of God. These
are works of God. Chapter 1 of Ephesians is about
this, salvation of the Lord. That's what it's about. It's
a declaration of God's grace to unworthy sinners in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he talks about the work of
the Spirit who has sealed us. He says, "...in whom you also
trusted. After that you heard the Word
of Truth." The Word of Truth. You heard it. The Word. Not a
word. Not any word. The Word of Truth. There is only one Word of Truth.
There is only one Gospel. the gospel of God's redeeming
grace, the gospel of substitution and satisfaction, the Word of
Truth, in whom ye also trusted after ye heard the Word of Truth.
You can't trust the blessed Savior until after you hear about Him. Every once in a while people
say something to me like, well, you know, I was saved years ago,
and then I heard the gospel of grace, and I believed that, but
I saved way back. Wait a minute. You're not saved
before you hear the Word of Truth. You're not saved by lies. God's
not saving anybody. God's not revealing Himself to
anybody using the devil's lies, using the tactics of the evil
one. He uses the Word of Truth. as men like this pastor and this
pastor and several other men proclaim it to you. After that
you heard the Word of Truth. You heard it. I heard it from
somebody. Huh? You did too, didn't you?
I heard. Oh, I had heard with these ears. I had heard several times. And
I'm thankful for that. And then I really heard. God
gave me ears to hear. I was in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, assistant pastor of a Baptist church there. And a
fellow came to town by the name of Mahan, Henry Mahan. And he preached the gospel. And
I heard the Word of Truth. I heard how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. And for the first time I heard
it. And that's all I've wanted to hear ever since. That's the
way it is with you. That's all I want to hear. I
don't want to hear anything else. And I'm not going to hear anything.
I'm not going to listen to anything. Are you? I'm not going to listen
to anything else. I'm going to listen to that only
gospel, the Word of Truth that glorifies the Lord. The Spirit
of God reveals Christ to us. The glory of God is seen in the
face of Jesus Christ. And He seals us. He preserves
us. He keeps us from spalling the
Spirit of God. Lord, He works powerfully within
us. That same power that was effectual
in raising Christ from the dead is operative in us. And Paul
winds up chapter 1 telling us about this glorious Savior. He's
been exalted. He's the governor. He's the king. He's the Lord. And He rules over
everything for His church, for His people. And then he gets
to the second chapter and he says, "...and." And what he does in the second
chapter is he speaks to us of our former condition, our
unregenerate state, before we knew the gospel, when we walked
in ignorance, in rebellion. He tells us what we were. You
see, we will better appreciate the everlasting lovingkindness
of our God, and the redemptive work of our Savior, and the sealing,
keeping work of the Spirit of God, if we are reminded of what
we were when the Spirit of God found us. And that's what he
begins to do in the second chapter. All right, look here. It says in verse 1, it says,
And you have he quickened who were dead. Dead in sin. Now, let me answer about five
questions in the time I've got remaining about the second chapter
of Ephesians. Here's the first one. What we
are by birth. What we are by birth. Number
one, we're dead in sin. Dead is just a short word. You
know, there are some fellows, you read these theologians scholars
and commentators and they use these big long five dollar words
and you have to have a dictionary handy to look it up, you know.
The Bible says you're dead. Not one of us in here doesn't
have some idea what dead is. That doesn't mean that you've
got a little bit of life. It means you've got no life. You know, one of the things I
learned a long time ago about this business of preaching We
got to speak in plain language. The Bible does that. The Lord
Jesus did that. Just in plain language so everybody
can understand. Years ago, you know where Randolph
Street Baptist Church is in Charleston, West Virginia? I was there preaching
for Bob McNeil a long time ago. I was in a Bible conference and
there was a fellow there with me. He was one of the speakers.
He was speaking first and I spoke second and we were both in Bible
college together. And he got up and he said, now
this morning I'm going to put all the cookies on the top shelf.
He said, I want us to grow in grace by stretching to get these
things. And boy, he laid it out in a
scholarly way. And some of it just went right
on over my head. And I got up after him and I
said, our brother, He said, he's going to put the cookies up on
the top shelf so we'd have to stretch to get them. I said,
well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to put them
down here on the bottom shelf and all you've got to do is stoop
to get them. We've got to speak plainly. And
this is as plain as it can be by nature, by birth. As a result
of Adam's sin, when we're born into this world, we're spiritually
D-E-A-D. Boy, that's simple, isn't it? We're dead. That means there
is an absence of life. Spiritual life. An absence of
spiritual life. Well, when that happened in the
fall, wherefore, as by one man, one representative man, one federal
head. Wherefore, it is by one man sin
entered into this world, and death by sin. And so death passed
upon all men, you and me and everybody else, for that all
have sinned," or literally, all sinned in Adam. And that's the
way it is. You may not like it, and your
mama and daddy may not like it, and folks in this religious world
may buck against it. It doesn't change a thing. The
Bible says you're dead. The Lord said in one of them
churches of Asia Minor, you've got a name that you live, but
you're dead. You look good to everybody else,
but to me, you're dead. Dead in what? Trespasses and
sins. He says in the second verse,
wherein in time past, before the Lord did something for you.
This will make you appreciate the grace of God even more now.
In time past you walked. This is the course of your life.
You walked according to the course of this world like everybody
else. You had the thinking of the world, the mind of the world,
the attitude of the world, the will of the world. According to the prince of the
power of the air, uh-oh, Satan had control over you. They say, you ain't nobody's
demon possessed anymore. Every unbeliever is demon possessed. That's right. walking according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience." And he says, "...among whom also
we all had our conversation." We. He's including himself now. This is an inspired apostle.
He says, this was my state too. He said, well, you know, we're
not preaching down to you. I'm not preaching down to you
tonight. I'm not saying what you are by
nature. It's what we are by nature. We're
all born this way. We're all born with a fist in
God's face in rebellion against Him. That's the way we all are.
These sweet little children, we love them. I've got grandchildren.
I love them, think the world of them, do anything for them,
but they're little rebels against God. They died in sin. And one isn't more inclined to
be a believer than others because we're all dead. Our Lord raised three people
from the dead. A little girl who had just died,
and a young man who had been dead a short while, and then
Lazarus who had been dead four days. One, the little girl, she
probably still had color in her cheeks. She's probably still
warm to the touch. And the young man, he was being
carried to the cemetery. He's already cold. He's got to
be buried. And Lazarus, he'd been dead so
long, Martha said, you don't want to roll the stone away because
he's been dead four days. He stinks. One still looked like
they were alive, but she's just as dead as Lazarus. And in this world, there are
some people, they look good. Their lives look good. As we measure goodness, they're
fine folks. They're good neighbors. They're good to you. They pay
their bills, treat people right. If you got sick, they'd bring
you a bowl of soup. And then there are others that
are like Lazarus, they just, their lives stink. But the fact of the matter is,
they're all dead. I don't care how moral you are,
how upstanding in the community, in Adam, you're dead. For as in Adam, all died, is
what it says in 1 Corinthians 15. No exception. Verse 3, we
all had our conversation in times past of the lusts of our flesh.
We're concerned about, number one, what we want, what we desire. Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind were by nature the children of wrath.
And I believe that means children deserving of wrath, just like
everybody else. God's elect, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. We're born in sin. We're
dead in sin. And we deserve the wrath of God
just like everybody else. And one of the things God teaches
us, I'm persuaded, in this matter of conversion, in salvation,
is that we deserve everlasting punishment. That's what our sins
deserve. God would have been just if He
put me into hell. I'm telling you the truth. I
really believe that, Pastor. That's not just words. I really
believe that. I've got just a little glimpse into the rottenness of
my heart. Just a little glimpse. I don't
think I can stand much more. And nobody really knows how bad
sin is except one, He who has made sin for us. That man Christ
Jesus, He knows. Nobody else knows. But what little bit I've seen
makes me sick. Deserving of wrath. That's what
David said in Psalm 51. You'd be just if you damned me.
That's what he said. Have you ever said that in a
minute? God, you'd be just if you damned
me. Just like everybody else, deserving
the wrath of God. It's what we are by nature. Look
down at verse 11. Here's what we are by nature.
Verse 11, we're in time past. You were Gentiles in the flesh
who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision
in the flesh made by hands. At that time, you were without
Christ. You had morality, but you didn't have Christ. You had
religion, but you didn't have Christ. You had church membership, but
you didn't have Christ. Being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. You're strangers from the covenants
of promise. Having no hope. No hope. In some of the saddest words
there are, there's no hope. 1975, my dad was operated on
for cancer. They had to figure out what was
wrong with him. And they opened him up and found a tumor in his
pancreas larger than a grapefruit. And they sewed him back up and
the surgeon come and talked to us and he said, there's no hope. And the word he used was, Mr. Bird is desperately ill. That's
what he said. And I remember that verse in
Jeremiah. The heart is desperately wicked. You know what that means? No
hope. Ain't no hope. You've got no
hope in yourself now. You understand that, don't you? You've got no hope in your works.
There's no hope there. There's no hope in joining the
church. You walk every aisle of every
church in America. Just make your way around all
of them if you live that long. Walk every aisle and you can
make all the decisions you want. You've still got no hope. I've
got no hope. It says, have no hope without
God in the world, without God. God is light and love, righteousness, holiness, and
you without Him. I'm talking to an unbeliever
tonight. You without Christ, you without God, you've got no
hope. Or are you in bad shape? That's what we were by birth.
In bad shape. Hopeless state. Here's the second
question. What did God do? Now, what did
you do? Paul doesn't tell the Ephesians
what they did. He says in verse 4, but God,
God did something. God did something. But God who
is rich in mercy, He plenteous in mercy, Scripture says. He
delights to show mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us even when we were dead in sins. Well, I thought
when we're saved by God's grace, when we're brought to believe
on Christ, I thought that's when God started loving us. Well,
you're wrong. He loved you when you were dead
in sins. That's right. He loved you before
the world began. And that love has never and will
never change. Because God can't change. He
loved you in Jesus Christ. Even when we were dead in sin.
Do you know what God did? He quickened us. He quickened
us. That's what He says in verse
1. And you have He quickened. This is that operating grace. The great physician goes to work
within us. Election happened outside of
us. Redemption happened outside of
us. Regeneration, that happens within
us. Nothing is going to have to happen
within us. God makes us alive. And He operates on some unusual
patients, people who are dead. There's no physician that I know
of that operates on anybody who's dead. These surgeons, they don't stay
in business operating on dead people. They operate on live
people. But God Almighty operates on
dead people. That's what He does. He gives
us life. Just like He breathed into Adam
the breath of life. He breathes the grace of His
life into us and we live for His glory. Regeneration. You believe and then you're born
again. No. You're born again and you believe.
God gives you life. Gives you life. I tell you, He
loved us notwithstanding our spiritual deadness. Watch this.
And He liberated us. By grace are you saved. By grace
are you rescued. You're rescued by grace. He delivered us from the power
of death, from the power of Him who had the power of death, even
the devil. And He lifted us up, verse 6,
hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. God did that. Here's the third question, to
what do we attribute God's wonderful salvation? Verse seven, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. God
saved us that he might display us as trophies of his grace. You probably don't sing this
song. We don't sing it unless we change the words. The old
road you cross, till my trophies I lay down. Oh, we're the trophies. We're the trophies of His grace.
And He gets all the reward. He gets all the praise. Well,
let me give you this real quick. Question number four. How does
God save sinners? Well, verse eight. For by grace
do you save. That's how God saves sin, by
grace. He's already set forth in chapter 1, it's electing grace,
it's predestinating grace, it's redeeming grace, it's regenerating
grace, it's sanctifying grace, it's justifying grace, it's glorifying
grace. For by grace you're saved through
faith. Ah, that's our part. Well, we
do believe. There's no question about that.
We do believe. The Spirit of God doesn't believe for us. But
that's not of yourselves. You can't even take credit for
that. And you wouldn't, would you? No, sir. I wouldn't take
credit for that. Faith's a gift. God enables us
to believe. It's the gift of God, not of
works lest we boast about it. I guarantee there ain't nobody
in heaven tonight, or ever, boasting about how that their faith made
the difference. Everybody is boasting in the
Lord. He that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. See, when
we get to heaven, I know it is going to be a big difference
between down here in heaven, but in another way, it is not
going to be a big difference with the people of God in this
sense. We brag on Him here, we are going to brag on Him there.
We sing His praises here. We sing His praises there. We
sing worthy is the Lamb here. We'll sing worthy is the Lamb
there. We sing we're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb here.
We'll sing we're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb there.
Except there we'll sing it perfectly. And we'll worship perfectly.
But we'll keep on doing what we're doing down here imperfectly.
We're worshiping imperfectly tonight. Up yonder we'll worship
God as He ought to be worshiped. But we'll still be doing what
we want to do down here. And I know you like I am. You
know when I'm the happiest? When I'm doing what I'm doing
right now. It's when I'm the most satisfied. It's when I'm
the most contented. I'm disconnected for a while
from the trials of life and the troubles of the world and all
that's going on out there. And now I'm boxed in here with
you folks and we're talking about the Lord Jesus and talking about
His blood, talking about His salvation, talking about His
glory. And we kind of get caught up
in the moment and we delight in the Lord. Someday we're going
to delight in Him perfectly forevermore. And that's what heaven is. Heaven
is a place of worship. And if you don't like worship
down here, if you're kind of bored with it down here, well,
you wouldn't be happy at all in Heaven. Not at all. Because that's all that goes
on there. It's not family reunions up there
and floating around on a cloud and having family picnics and
all that kind of Tommy rock. It's about worship. We're going
to worship the Lord. I went to a funeral one time.
Years ago, I was in Rocky Mount pastoring there, and a friend
of mine died. Out of respect to his wife, I
went to the funeral. This guy got up there, and the
deceased, his first name was Jimmy. And Jimmy was a carpenter. That preacher got up there, and
he said, well, I can just see Jimmy now. He got up to heaven
and the Lord said, well, Jimmy, if you want to build a deck on
this place, just go to it. And Jimmy is up there driving
nails for Jesus now. I was fit to be tied. And I just
wanted to tear into that guy. What foolishness! Heaven is a
place of worship and adoration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what are we now? We're
God's creation. That's what it says in verse
10. We're God's creation. And we are ordained to perform
good works. And you know what? We've been
reconciled to God by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
been reconciled to God. He's our peace. He not only made
our peace, He is our peace. He is our peace. And as a result
of the work of grace within us, we're at peace with people who
by nature we're enemies with. He's talking about Jew and Gentile
here. Folks that couldn't get along by nature, couldn't get
along because of all the differences, by grace they get along because
they're family. In other words, the grace of
God operating within us reconciles us to one another. And we lay
aside these differences for the sake of the gospel, because we're
family now. You're family. You're stuck with
me. Whether you like it or not, I'm
your brother if you're in Christ. And we're going to be family
forever. Forever. And I like that. She'll always
be my sister. She won't be my wife in heaven.
She'll be my sister in heaven, though. That's where relationships
never be broken. We're reconciled to one another.
We're joined together, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, educated
and uneducated, black and white in Christ Jesus. We're joined
together. We're unified in Him. Aren't we? One body. Then he said, look down here,
I've got to go quick. He abolished all this enmity
in verse 15, in His flesh. In His flesh. Great is the mystery
of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
You know who did all this? The Son of God did all this.
In the flesh. In the flesh. And He reconciled
us, verse 16, reconciled both unto God in one body. How did
He do that? By the cross. by the cross. He's not talking about that wooden
beam. He's talking about the adoption of the atonement. He's
talking about redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus. He came
to preach peace to us. He preached peace to us. People
who were far off Gentiles and those who were nearby Jews. Look
at verse 18. For through Him we both have
access to one Spirit under the Father. Through Him, we have
access to God. We've got a Mediator. What do
you know about that? Huh? Because one God and one
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, he
says in verse 19, now, now, let's get to now. Therefore ye are no more strangers
and foreigners. Ye are fellow citizens with the
saints. Ye are of the household of God. And you're built upon
the foundation, the same foundation the apostles and the prophets
are built on, Jesus Christ Himself. That's who we're founded upon.
Other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid,
which is Christ Jesus. He's the chief cornerstone. He's
the rock. He's the rock, Christ Jesus,
in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord. in whom ye also are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Now, that's just
my idea. But what I suspect is this. I
believe Paul had in his mind's eye what the people of Ephesus
had to look at every day, a great temple erected to the honor of
Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians. He'd talk about another temple,
that God's building, made up of living stones, founded on one foundation, the
solid rock. Living stones, we've been quarried,
we've been mined out of the quarry of mankind. God dug us out and
fitted us into this building. And someday that temple is going
to be complete. And we'll all be built, we'll
all be found to be built on the solid rock, Christ Jesus. That's
what God's done for us. We sing that song, I'm on the
rock, hallelujah. I'm on the rock to stay. For
He lifted me from the miry clay. I'm on the rock To stay. To stay. You reckon we could
sing that song, The Solid Rock? 582. Let's sing that song. 582. Pastoral Come Least.