Now the Apostle Paul is writing
to these Ephesian believers and they were... The church at Ephesus
was predominantly Gentile. It's what they were before they
were called. According to the flesh, they
were Gentiles. There were some Jews there too
who had been called, but it was predominantly Gentile. And Paul
is reminding them that they were called the uncircumcision in
the flesh by the Jews who were called the circumcision in the
flesh made by hands. Now under that old covenant that
God gave to Moses, the greatest division that ever existed between
men and men existed between Jew and Gentile. The Jews consisted
of the nation of Israel. They're referred to there in
verse 11 as circumcision in the flesh made by hands because of
that fleshly sign of circumcision. And the Gentiles consisted of
the rest of the world, everybody else. outside of Israel. They're called there in verse
11 the uncircumcision because they didn't have that fleshly
sign. Now originally there was no difference
between any sinner. All sinners came from Adam. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Just all who are born of Adam
are born spiritually dead and trespasses in sin. So there was
no difference whatsoever about any man spiritually. But God,
God called Abraham. And from his natural children,
God made a nation that he named Israel. We saw the other day
how he changed Jacob's name to Israel. and his twelve sons made
up the twelve tribes of Israel. And so, God created the nation
Israel, the Jews, the circumcision. God separated them, the Jews
from the Gentiles, by giving them laws at Mount Sinai. He gave them some laws. He forbid
the Jew to associate with the Gentile. That's how he separated
them. Those laws are referred to here
in Ephesians 2.15 as the law of commandments contained in
ordinances. And those laws served as a wall
of partition dividing the Jew from the Gentile. They're referred
here in verse 14 as the middle wall of partition between us. Now what was God's purpose in
dividing the Jew from the Gentile? Why did he do that? Well, it
wasn't because one people was better than the other people.
They were all sinners. We are all sinners. God did it
to show His elect, His true sons and daughters, that God alone
puts a difference between His people, those that He's chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world, and the rest of
the world. God does that. God puts the difference
between them. He said over there when Israel
was still in Egypt, He made this statement through Moses. He said,
I'm going to do this that you may know how that the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians, between Gentiles and
Israel. And in the New Testament, the
Lord spoke through Paul and He said, who makes you to differ
from another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou
did not receive it? But the Jews did glory. They did glory and exalt themselves
over the Gentiles. And that in turn made the Gentiles
want to exalt themselves over the Jews. But God told Abraham
from the very beginning. He preached the gospel to Abraham
and he told him that not all of Abraham's children were God's
true Israel. He told Abraham that. He said
that his true holy nation were made up of God's elect who would
be born of God the Holy Spirit. Look over at Romans 9. I want
you to see that. Romans chapter 9. Now, let me tell you what God
told Abraham. God told Abraham, In Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That's what God told Abraham.
Now God uses Paul to tell us exactly what that statement meant. Exactly what God meant by that
statement. Here in Romans 9 verse 6, He
says, They are not all Israel, which are of Israel. They're
not all God's true Israel which are of that natural Israel, that
physical nation Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. Seed means children. Neither because they're all Neither
because they are the children of Abraham are they all children.
But now here's that statement. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. Now he says there in verse 8,
that is, that means, here's what that statement means. It means,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God. Those natural children of the
flesh, born of the flesh, born of Abraham, these are not the
children of God. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed as true children. Now watch this, verse
9. For this is the word of promise. He just said there the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. And then he says, now
this is the word of promise. This is what God told Abraham.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. So now,
God told Abraham that God's true elect Israel, His true people,
were not all Abraham's children. He said, but the children of
promise, that is, those elected of God, those chosen of God,
before the foundation of the world, those make up the true
children. And also, God said, He promised
here that each elect child shall be born of God the Holy Spirit.
He said, the word of promise is this, at God's appointed time,
each of his elect shall be born again by the miracle of God's
grace, just as Isaac was born of God at the set time. Just
like God told Abraham, I'm coming at this particular time, and
Isaac's going to be born. A miracle of God's grace. Abraham
couldn't do it, Sarah couldn't do it, So that's what he said. My children are the ones I've
chosen, and they're the ones that at the set time, at God's
appointed time, they're going to be born of God like Isaac
was. Like Isaac was. That's why whenever
Paul was speaking to born-again Gentile believers over in Galatians,
he said, now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
promise. He was speaking to Gentiles and
Jews when he said that. And he said, now we brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Furthermore, look
over at Galatians chapter 3. I just want to show you why God
created Israel, but I want to show you that God told Abraham
from the very beginning that Israel was a picture of his true
people. Now look here. God told Abraham that his true
Israel, his elect, were not only among natural Israel. They were
not only going to be among those sons that were born of Abraham
right there in that nation. But they were also scattered
in the four corners of the earth. They were scattered about in
all nations, from all tribes, from all tongues, from all people
of the earth. Now listen, let me tell you what
God told Abraham. In Genesis 12, verse 3, He said,
In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Families
means all nations, tribes, tongue, and people. Alright, Genesis
18, 18, he said all the nations of the earth shall be blessed
in Abraham. So God told Abraham from the
beginning, these people, these elect people I'm calling, they're
going to come from all nations. Now, again, God the Holy Spirit
told Paul exactly what he meant when he said all nations. Look
here at Galatians 3, 8. the scripture for seeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith. That is, the Gentile
elect. Seeing that God would justify
the Gentile elect through faith, He preached before the gospel
unto Abraham saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
You see how God the Holy Spirit tells us exactly what He meant
when He said that to Abraham. So then, they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. So, speaking to born-again believers,
some were Jews, some were Gentiles after the flesh, God says through
Paul, you're won by faith in Christ. Look down at verse 26.
For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, that means baptized by the Holy Spirit into
Christ, by the new birth. have put on Christ, he says.
We put on Christ through faith. He says, many of you who have
been born of the Holy Spirit have put on Christ through faith.
He says, and there's neither Jew nor Greek. Greek here means
Gentile. There's neither Jew nor Gentile.
There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ,
then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
Now these are the children of promise. Now hold your place
there in Galatians 3. In addition to all this, God
told Abraham that it was in Christ that all these elect children
were going to be blessed. Now he told Abraham this in Genesis
22, 18. He said, In thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed. In thy seed, in a child that's
coming through you, Abraham, shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed. Now God used Paul to tell us
exactly who God meant by in thy seed. Look at Galatians 3.16.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not,
and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ. So when God said to Abraham,
In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, he was
saying, In Christ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Now, be sure to get this. Be sure to get this. Not only
does Christ tell us that a man must be born again or he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God. Not only does He plainly just
state that. It's a must just like He said
the Son of Man must be lifted up. Just like Moses lifted up
that serpent into the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. He said it's a must that they
be born again. But not only simply because that's
the truth that He stated. But it is a certainty that all
God's elect, all Christ's redeemed, shall be born again and called
to faith in Christ because God the Father promised Christ that
they would be. Now look there. He says to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. God told Christ his seed. He promised him that all of his
children will be born again to Abraham and his seed, Christ
Jesus, where the promise is made. This is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and each shall be born of the Spirit
like Isaac was born at that set time according to promise. You
see, God promised Christ this. He promised Christ this. Alright,
so be sure we got it now. God made the natural Jewish nation
Israel and fulfilled every earthly promise He made to that nation. And he did it to show that God
alone puts a difference between his spiritual people and the
rest of the world, and that God fulfills all His spiritual promises. God puts a difference between
His people. God the Father does in divine
election, choosing whom He will. God the Son does by divine redemption,
redeeming them by His blood. And God the Holy Spirit does
in regeneration and giving them a new heart and faith in Christ.
But God doesn't separate us And He doesn't make us one using
carnal ordinances like He did the natural nation, like He did
Israel. So then how does He do so? How
does He make us one and make a difference between His people
and the rest of the world? That's what we're going to see
in our text tonight. Here's what I want you to get. God makes
His elect one with God and He makes us one with one another
in Christ. by a two-fold work that Christ
does as the mediator, that Christ accomplishes as the mediator
of his people. Now let's read our text again
and I'm going to show you these two works and they're going to
make up our divisions. Ephesians 2. First of all, Christ
is the piece of his elect by what Christ accomplished on the
cross. That's the first part of this
work, by what he accomplished on the cross. Look at verse 14.
He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity which means the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace. That's the cross work. All right?
Secondly, Christ is our peace by what he accomplished in our
hearts through the gospel. Look at verse 16. And that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby, and he came and preached peace to
you which were far off and to them that were nigh for through
him we both have access by one spirit unto the father. Now that's
the work he does in our heart through the gospel. That's the
two-fold work. That's how God separates his
people and makes us one holy people in him. Alright, first
of all, it says Christ is our peace by what he accomplished
on the cross. Christ Himself is our peace. He says there, He is our peace. Christ is our peace first of
all with God. He is the peace between God and
His child. Now every sinner We lost friendship
with God. That's what reconciliation is.
That's what it is to be at peace with God. It's to be made friends
with God and God to be your friend. That's what we're talking about.
But we lost that when Adam sinned in the garden. When he broke
that one law, we lost friendship with God. All men did. And being born of Adam's corrupt
nature, we were enmity against God. Our sin nature was. We didn't
like God. We hated God. And because we
had broke God's law, Him being the judge and the lawgiver whose
law we broke, we had to be reconciled to God so He could receive us
and be at peace with us and be be friends with us. Look at verse
13. But now in Christ Jesus you who
sometimes were far off are made nigh, made near by the blood
of Christ. Christ took flesh, he was made
under the law, and he was proven faithful under that law, proven
holy, perfect, so he was a fit substitute. And so the Lord laid
on him the iniquity of all his elect people. And Christ bore
in the place of his people the punishment that his people deserved. He bore divine justice. And by
satisfying divine justice, now all his people have been reconciled
to God. We've been brought near to God
by the blood of Christ. God's law is satisfied, God is
holy, justice can receive us as His friends, no harm done
to His holiness, to His justice whatsoever. Alright? But now
the context says Christ is also our peace between brethren and
brethren. Now this is what I want you to
get. This got me excited when I saw this. He's our peace between
brethren and brethren. God's elect Jew and God's elect
Gentile, we were divided into two nations. There was natural
Israel and then whatever Gentile nation we came from. We were
divided. There was no greater enmity between
Jew and Gentile. You think about it and now this
problem is not just an old problem, it's a problem today. Because
sinners love to exalt self. And sinners exalt self using
race, sex, religion, class, education, and on and on and on, using these
carnal distinctions. And the law of God was used that
way. That's how those in Israel used the law of God. But Christ
alone makes his people one. Look at verse 14. He is our peace
who hath made both one. He's talking here about Jew and
Gentile because that's what he was just talking about in the
context. We were at odds between Jew and Gentile but Christ made
us one. Christ made us one holy nation
by fulfilling the law that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
That was what separated us. And Christ made us one nation
by fulfilling it. The law was given to declare
us guilty and shut our mouths. That's what it was given for.
But in the hands of sinners, that law became a wall. And it
was a wall. God made it a wall. He separated
Jew and Gentile. But in the hands of sinners especially,
it became a wall. It became a wall. You picture
two rooms divided. They're partitioned. They're partitioned by this wall.
Well, that's what Jew and Gentile, his elect among Jew and Gentile
were. The elect among the Jews were
in one room and the elect among the Gentiles were in another
room. And quite literally, in the temple, that's how they had
it. The Jews were in the inner, more court closer to the holiest
of holies than the Jews were on the outside, in the outer
court. But Christ broke down that wall. Look at verse 14.
He's broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Now
the law in the hands of sinners was enmity. That's the enmity
spoken of here. Due to sin, the law made the
Jews exalt themselves over the Gentiles and say, look what we
have. We got a temple that came straight from God. We got a high
priest. We got a lamb. We got all these
ordinances. And y'all got nothing. And the
Gentiles, when you treat somebody that way, what does it do to
you? When somebody treats you that way, what does it do? It
makes you turn around and treat them the same way. So when the
Jews treated the Gentiles with that enmity, the Gentiles turned
around and treated the Jews with that enmity. So there's this,
the law was the enmity between the elect, his elect. Galatians
4.24 says the law that was given from Mount Sinai, it genders
to bondage. And it does in every way. That's
what the law does, in every way, to an unregenerate man. But by
taking flesh, by taking flesh and by fulfilling that law, Christ
being the end of the lawful righteousness, Christ being the express image
of everything that was pictured in the ceremonial law, and Christ
himself fulfilling everything that was written in the commandments.
Christ has become the end of the law for righteousness to
his people. And so he took it out of the way. Look at verse
15. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances. Over in Colossians, Paul said
it this way. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us, which was contrary to us, took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross. You just imagine in churches
where men got everything they're using to say their church is
better than another church, or to say that they themselves are
better than others that profess to believe, and they're using
the law, and they're using how they do this service, and how
they do this practice, and all that. Imagine if you just took
all of that out of the picture now, every bit of it out of the
way, and said, okay, now what do you have to make yourself
better than another? That's what Christ did. And that's
what Christ does in the hearts of His people. He makes us to
see, I've taken all that out of the way. So you don't have
anything in your hands, anything in your tongue, anything in your
walk, anything about you that you can use to say, I'm better
than this other one is. He took it all out of the way.
He took every bit of that out of the way. And then, because
He finished this work, because He fulfilled everything in that
law, Christ made all God's elect one new man in Himself. Look
at verse 15. He did this for to make in Himself
of Twain one new man, so making peace. Now this is what caught
my attention. This is what the text is telling
us. The next part of the next work is going to tell us how
that he came and preached this peace to us and made us to know
it in our heart and made us one in our heart. But he's not talking
about that right here. He's talking about what Christ
did at Calvary. Now listen, God's elect Jew and God's elect Gentile
were made one holy nation in the mind and in the view of God
by Christ's work before He ever even revealed it to His people.
Be sure to get that now. Just as each elect child was
reconciled to God before God made us to know it, we were reconciled
to God before He ever came and told us and made us to know it.
Well, but just the same way, all God's elect were reconciled
to each other before God made us to know it. In Christ, in that one body,
though we were not yet reconciled one to another in our hearts,
God's elect Jew and Gentile were already reconciled to one another
and made one people because God had made us one people in Christ.
God acknowledged us as one new man, His holy nation, as represented
to Him by Christ in Christ's one body, while as yet we were
still divided from each other. While as yet we still divided
ourselves and said, well, I'm of the Gentiles or I'm of the
Jews. While we were saying, I'm a Baptist,
another one was saying, I'm a Methodist, and another one was saying, I'm
a Catholic, and another one was saying, I'm this and I'm that,
and I believe in this doctrine, I believe in that doctrine. While
we were still doing all that stuff, God had already made us
one people in Christ, one holy nation. You remember this? over
in Exodus 19, 5. Let me just read this to you.
God gave Israel all the law and everything and He made that old
covenant with them, the covenant of works. And He said this to
them, Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep
my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above
all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be unto
me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." That's what God told
them. But not a single soul in Israel, not a single sinner obeyed
God. None of them did. None of them
did. But God said through Peter, that Christ, by his obedience,
he fulfilled that scripture. That's what he says over there
in 1 Peter 2, 9. He says, God's people are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, his holy nation, his peculiar
people, his peculiar treasure. He gave them the works under
the old covenant of works. He said, if you keep my law and
keep my covenant, you'll be this to me. And not a soul did it.
But when Christ did it, That's what we became. Before as yet
we ever knew anything about it. All of it was accomplished by
Christ. All of it was done by Him fulfilling the law. All of
it was done by His obedience, by Him taking that law, fulfilling
it, taking it out of the way and nailing it to His cross.
It's done now. It's accomplished. It's finished.
And we were one holy nation, one kingdom of priests, one peculiar
treasure to God when as yet we were still squabbling about the
oracles of God and about the scriptures and about all those
things and trying to set ourselves up over another by something
we did. Now brethren, that's one reason
I was thinking about that. That's one reason why we ought
to be as kind as we can be and preach the gospel to people who
yet are enemies to the cross because If Christ died for them,
we're one with Him. We're one nation with Him. We're
one people with Him. Though we don't yet know it and
they don't yet know it. That's what we were before as
yet He called us. We were one already. Now that's
the first work. That's the cross work. Now look
at this. Secondly, Christ is our peace
by what He accomplishes in our hearts. Verse 16. Now look at
this. that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by
the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and he came and preached
peace to you which were far off and to them that were nigh, for
through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Christ is the Prince of Peace. We saw this Sunday. And He's
the Peacemaker. And the government's on His shoulder
to make this peace between His people. So in order that, this
is what He said, in addition to that work, He said, in order
that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having already slain the enmity, Having already broken down the
middle wall of partition, having already fulfilled the law for
us, Christ also comes and preaches the gospel of peace, of reconciliation
to each one of his redeemed children through his ambassadors. It's
Christ's glory. It's his glory as the head of
the church to fill all in all. God the Father not only promised
that in Christ all His seed would be called, He raised Christ and
gave Him to be the head of the church so Christ could do the
calling! He gave him that glory. That's
what we read in Ephesians 1.22. Now look at this and just keep
reading into chapter 2. Ephesians 1.22. He hath put all
things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and in sin. He said He raised him to
be head to fill all and all, and that's what He's done to
you. He's filled you with the Spirit. God said Christ would
do this. I've showed you this from Isaiah
53.10. He said, It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. God, the Holy Spirit, said it
pleased God. The pleasure of the Lord, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. That's the pleasure of the Lord. So after Christ
abolished in His flesh the enmity, after He fulfilled the law, after
He made us one holy nation before God in Him by His blood, then
Christ sent the Gospel to us to accomplish that pleasure of
the Lord to make us one in Spirit, by the Spirit. Look here, read
it again, Ephesians 2.15. having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace, there's
the cross word, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one
body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came
and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that
were nigh, for through him we both have access by one spirit
unto the Father. Do you see it? Do you see both
of these works? Turn to 2 Corinthians 5, just
back a few pages. I want you to see it there. 2
Corinthians 5.18. God says the same thing. 2 Corinthians 5.18. And all things
are of God. All things are of God. Now here's
the first word, the cross word. Who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ. All right, here comes this work
in the heart through the gospel. "...and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation." He's going to repeat it. "...to
wit," here's the first, the cross work, "...that God was in Christ
reconciling the world of His elect unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them." "...and," now here's the second
work, "...and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled
to God. You see that? There's two works
here. There's the work he did on the cross whereby he reconciled
us to God, and there's the work whereby he sends his ambassador
who speaks for Christ and says, now you be reconciled to God.
He's done this work already on the cross. Now you lay down your
shotgun and you'll be reconciled to God. And if He works His grace
in our heart, that's exactly what will happen. That's exactly
what will happen. Don't you want Christ to have the glory? This
is His glory. It's as much His glory to do
this work of sending the gospel and creating a new heart in His
people as it is for Him to reconcile us to God on the cross. Christ
is the head. It's His work. All right. Look at this. Back in our text,
Ephesians 2.17. He says, Christ came and preached
peace to you which were far off, that's the Gentile, and to them
that were not, that's the Jew. Now this is the best place I
could think of to illustrate this. Do you remember how Christ
sent Peter, who was a Jew, to his elect Cornelius, who was
a Gentile? Do you remember that? Christ
appeared to Peter. Here's Peter. He's already been
regenerated. He's born again, child of God.
But he still wants that middle wall to be up between him and
the Gentiles. And so Christ appears to him
and he let down a sheet that was knit at four corners. And
in this sheet there was all manner of animals that were forbidden
by God in the law for a Jew to eat. They were forbidden. And
Christ told Peter, Arise, kill, and eat. Look at Acts 10. I'll show you this real quick.
Acts 10. Look at verse 14. But Peter said, But Peter said, Not so, Lord.
For I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And
the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath
cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done three times
and the vessel was received up again into heaven. That sheet
was knitted to four corners. God's elect are a people called
out of the four corners of the earth. That sheep was let down
and had all manner of animals in it. Christ, God's elect are
in Christ and there's all manner of sinners that He gave to Christ. All manner. Jew and Gentile,
bond and free, male and female, Scythian and barbarian. And God
declared to Peter three times, He said, What God's cleansed,
that call not thou common. He said it three times. God's
people are cleansed and they're made holy by the three persons
in the Godhead. By God the Father electing them,
by God the Son redeeming them, and by God the Holy Spirit regenerating
them. That's how they're cleansed and made holy as opposed to being
common. And that sheep then was lifted
up into glory. And in Christ in glory, that's
where we've been reconciled. That's where we've been made
one. In Him. And when Peter saw Cornelius
the Jew, he said, then Peter opened his mouth and he said,
Of a truth I perceive, God is no respecter of persons. All
those things that we were building up and thought made us somebody
separate from another, God don't regard them. He don't regard
them at all. And then look here, after Christ
preached the gospel through Peter to Cornelius and those other
elect folks in Cornelius' house. Christ baptized them in the Holy
Ghost and they believed on Christ. And then when Peter's Jewish
brethren heard it, look at Acts 11 and look at verse 18. When
they heard it, this is what they said. When they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God and said, Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. You see how Christ,
He came and then He made them no longer Jew and Gentile, but
one in Christ by one spirit, by sin in the gospel. And then
later, when other Jews were trying to build back those walls, they
came down and they were insisting that the Gentiles that had been
called by God and been born again, they were insisting that those
Gentiles become Jews. That's what they were doing.
They were saying, if you're going to be saved, you've got to become
an Israelite. You've got to become a Jew. That's
what they were saying. And look what Peter said, Acts
15 and verse 7. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and he said unto them, Men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us. And He put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore,
why tempt ye God? to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we Jews shall be saved, even as those Gentiles,
without the law, through the gospel, through faith in Christ,
by His grace." And then Christ spread the gospel further by
sending Paul to the Gentiles and sending Peter to the Jews,
but it was Christ doing the preaching. We who he's called know that
because you've experienced the power and wisdom of God. Christ,
the power and wisdom of God. And by Christ coming and preaching
peace. Now go back to our text. By him doing that, this is what
he did. Look at verse 18. Through Him, we both have access
by one Spirit unto the Father. You see that? That's what He
did. That's what He did between Peter and Cornelius, between
those Jews and those Gentiles. He made them one. He made them
one. So here's the application. Paul
said in Romans 5.1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ justified
us. And He came and preached the
gospel to us, and so through Him we have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Galatians 2 real quick.
I want you to place it in Ephesians. I'm going to come back, but it's
just a page over. Galatians 2, 18. So, we don't ever build those
walls back up again. We don't build them back up again.
We don't turn again to the law. We don't bring our brethren under
the law. We just preach Christ. And we don't make any other carnal
distinction. Because Paul said this, Galatians 2.18, If I build
again the things which I destroyed, if I try to build up those walls
again, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law, through
Christ fulfilling the law, am dead to the law that I might
live unto God. See that? I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live,
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. God built that wall and then
to show us that only God could fulfill it and tear it down and
make his people one in spirit through the gospel. In Christ
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
To a believer, It's the same to a believer as
it is to God. There is no such thing as Israel
and all the other nations. There's no such thing as Jew
and Gentile. There's no such thing as male
and female, bond and free, educated and uneducated. In Christ, we're
made one. We're made one righteous and
holy by what He's done. Now, therefore, Paul is telling
us all this. I don't know who had come into
Ephesus and what was going on. Who was it that was trying to
have the preeminence? He was from Ephesus in any way, and
so I don't know what was going on there. But this is where Paul's
going with all this. He's saying, abide in Christ,
just like Christ commanded us. He's saying, do so by abiding
in his church with his people because this is how God's going
to minister to us. Look at verse 21. In whom all
the building fitly framed together God did that. He put it together.
And we grow unto a holy temple in the Lord, whom ye also are
builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Now
look at Ephesians 4. This is my last scripture. This
is where Paul is going to. I want you to see why Paul is
saying this about how Christ has made us one by His work on
the cross and His work in our heart. This is why he's saying
it. Verse 1, I therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called. With all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. You see that? He's bound us in
peace. Isn't that good bondage? to be
bound in peace. We're bound in peace. And he
says, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. Why? There's one body and one
Spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. Amen. Let's stand
together, brethren. Father, what an amazing, wise
God you are. Who could have ever taken a whole
nation and illustrated how you save your people by grace? We can try to give illustrations
and try to use little objects to illustrate what we're talking
about and you use a whole nation. and then break down the wall
and fulfill the law and do everything in perfect righteousness and
then come and preach it to us and make us have a new heart
by your spirit and make us one by everything you've done. Lord,
make us to continually want to be with your people. Make us
continually want to hear your gospel. Make us endeavor to keep
the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Make us be long-suffering. Make us forbear one another in
love. Make us do this for Christ's
sake. Make us do it because we see
what great things Christ has perfectly fulfilled for us so
that we're one with you now. and make us good in spirit and
in truth, Father. Thank you so much. In Christ's
name, amen.