Ephesians chapter 2 Our text begins in verse 11 with
these words, wherefore remember, wherefore remember. In order to humble us, in order
to keep the believer glorying only in the Lord Jesus, only
in God's grace, it's good for us to remember, to remember. Especially to remember the pit
of sin and death from which we've been dug. From where we've been
saved by His grace. It's good to remember what we
were. It's good to remember what we are now. And it's good to
remember who made the difference. That's what I want to look at
this morning. Wherefore remember. For you who believe, it's good
to remember what you were, what you were. Verse 11 says, wherefore
remember, remember that you who believe were in time past of
reproach, a byword, That's what we were. Verse 11 says that ye
being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh. These two names
Gentiles and uncircumcision are derogatory names. They were names
that the natural unregenerate Jew used toward anybody that
was not of Israel. Anybody that was not a Jew. Gentile
is a word, the word is ethnos. Ethnos. It means race, is what
it means. And when the Jews made up this
word to use it, they made it speaking of that heathen race. That heathen race. To use a term
like this was what men today would call a racist term, is
what it was. And it's a name of reproach and
contempt from a Jew towards those who were Gentiles. But the unregenerate
Jew who used the term was himself a Gentile. I'll tell you what I mean by
that. Well, first of all, the Old Testament in several places
refers to Israel as Gentiles. But consider what qualified a
person as a Gentile. The Lord, throughout the entire
Old Covenant time, you had Israel, and then you had all the nations
around Israel, and the Lord never sent a prophet to those nations,
to establish a prophet in those nations, to minister to those
nations. He never sent a prophet to them.
So, from the time of Moses all the way till you get to the time
of when Christ ascended and then He sent Paul to the Gentiles,
but from that period, that time period, the Lord never sent a
prophet particularly to establish His gospel among the Gentiles. So that was a qualification of
being a Gentile. You didn't have the Word of God. Brethren, that's what the Jews
who were inside Israel, though they had the oracles of God outwardly,
spiritually, inwardly in their heart, they didn't have the Word
of God. They didn't have the Word of
God in their heart. God never gave the Gentiles a mercy seat.
He never gave the Gentiles a lamb. He never gave them a high priest.
Now, I'm not saying that he did have some elect and he did cause
the gospel to cross their path among the Gentiles and he called
them out, but I mean as a people, as a whole. They didn't have
a mercy seat. They didn't have a lamb. They
didn't have a high priest whatsoever. And that, in the mind of a natural
Jew, that constituted one as a Gentile. But that's what every
sinner is who does not have Christ through God-given faith. If you
don't have Christ, you're of that heathen race. So, unless we become puffed up
like the Gentiles and get to thinking something of ourselves
like what the Jews... I mean, unless we get puffed
up like the Jews did and get to thinking of ourselves as somebody
like Israel did, the Apostle Paul says, wherefore remember,
remember, God created that nation Israel to show that God alone
puts a difference between his people. That's what he was showing
there. He chooses whom He will and He
passes by whom He will. That's what He's showing in Israel.
But they took the things of God that He gave and did what a natural
man would do with those things. What a natural man would do with
this book right here. Exalt himself over others. And based on just the word based
on just things that he thinks he has that other men don't have.
Paul says, wherefore remember in time past you were ethnos. You were that human race who's
without Christ. With being aliens from God's
true Israel. His spiritual Israel. Strangers
from the covenants and from the promises of God. That's what
Paul goes on to remind the Ephesians here. And it's settled right
here in these first two words, Gentiles and the uncircumcision. Paul says, those that were the
natural unregenerate Jews, he calls them the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands. The circumcision in the flesh
made by hands. Because they had the outward
form of circumcision. That's what they had. But originally,
God gave that outward form of circumcision to Abraham. And Romans 4.11 says, He gave
it to him as a seal, a token, a sign of the righteousness of
the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised. You get what he's
saying? Outward circumcision did nothing
to Abraham. It availed nothing with Abraham.
It did absolutely nothing to him. It was an outward sign given
after to show what God had done before in his heart. How God
had given him a clean heart by the Spirit. How God had given
him a new heart. How He had given him faith. How
He had given him drawn him to Christ and caused him to believe
God. And that circumcision was a picture
of that. It was a sign, a token of that. That's how every sinner is made
a new creature in Christ. By God doing the whole work.
By the Holy Spirit quickening us, regenerating us, making us
new, giving us faith, washing us in the blood of Christ and
the washing of regeneration. Circumcising us inwardly. outward circumcision, outward
ceremony, whether you're circumcised, whether you have some kind of
outward ceremony of the law, some sort of outward obedience
to the law, or you don't have it, that's not what avails with
God. Paul said circumcision avails
nothing and uncircumcision avails nothing but a new creature, being
made a new creation in Christ by His grace in the heart. That's
what matters. That's what matters. No outward
thing done by you and I to try to gain any kind of acceptance
with God is going to account for anything with God. Nothing
whatsoever. It's God who brings us to see,
by this circumcision of the heart, He brings us to see Christ is
our righteousness. He's everything to us. And He
makes us to see, He makes us to differ. So we don't have any
room to boast at all. But the Gentiles didn't have
that outward sign of circumcision. They didn't have it. God never
gave it to them. He never gave them anything like
that. He didn't give them His word. He didn't have anything
to do with the Gentiles. And so the Jews who had it, who
the outward sign, the outward token, and they had the law,
they had the oracles of God and all these things, they took those
things, and looked down on the Gentiles who didn't have them
and said, that's the uncircumcision. That's that heathen race that
is the uncircumcision. That's what they called them.
And the fact was those unregenerate Jews were themselves spiritually
the uncircumcision. Because they hadn't been circumcised
in their heart. You see, they had the outward
form, but they missed the reality of it and what it pictured, what
it was a seal of. But they were too proud of their
outward form to know it. Too proud to know it. Wherefore,
remember, brethren, in time past. This is what he said. Wherefore,
remember, in time past. Before God regenerated us, we
were both of these. We were that heathen race and
we were uncircumcised. In heart, in spirit, we were
just like the unregenerate Jew, just like every holier-than-thou
religious sinner who held us in contempt. That's what we were. That's what we were. There was
no difference between us both. even though we all grew up in
a day when the gospel was preached to Gentiles. You see, it's hard
for us to enter into what it would be like living in a world
where you had Jews and you had Gentiles because we've all grew
up in a time when the gospel was preached to Gentiles. And
so we don't really get that. But the fact is, even though
we all grew up in a day when the gospel was preached to Gentiles,
still, until God worked in our hearts, In the flesh, we were
without Christ, we were without God, and we had no idea who God
is and how God says, and yet we had our form, we had our form,
and we had those that we held in contempt, that were beneath
us, that we considered to be the heathen, and the uncircumcision. We might not have used those
terms, but that's what we thought. Do you remember doing this? Do
you remember telling your friends and saying, this is how I think
God saves? I remember saying that. I remember
being with friends when I was younger and everybody talking
about God and I can remember saying, well this is how I think
God saves. And nothing I said was based
on this book. Everything I said was based on
just imagination and just fleshly sinful passions of how I think
God would be. Do you remember doing that? We've all done that at some point.
At some point. Well, that's foolishness. He
says here, wherefore remember at that time we were separated
from Christ. Verse 12, that at that time you
were without Christ. We may have called ourselves
Christians. We took His name in vain. That's the worst form
of taking the Lord's name in vain. To call oneself a Christian
when nothing's been done in our hearts. Wherefore, remember,
at that time we were foreigners to God's saints. We were strangers
from God's covenant promises. Verse 12, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise.
Some translations read from the promises of the covenant. It
can go either way though. We were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. The Ephesians were foreigners
to Israel. You know, whether you're talking
about believers or unbelievers, just the commonwealth of that
nation Israel, they were foreigners to it. Complete foreigners to
it and strangers to everything that was taught in the Word of
God. They had no idea about it whatsoever. The oracles, the
high priests, the lamb, the mercy seat, none of that. But also
they were foreigners to the commonwealth of God's true spiritual Israel. And there were some in national
Israel who were foreigners to the commonwealth of God's true
spiritual Israel. Not all those that are in Israel
are of Israel. There were some elect in Israel
that God had truly saved and regenerated and they saw the
common wealth, the riches of God's grace in his gospel toward
us through Christ Jesus. They saw that, beheld him. But
some in there and in the Gentiles didn't. That's what we were,
brethren. That's exactly what we didn't
know that the covenant that God made in the garden with Adam
was a covenant whereby when he sinned, he plunged the whole
human race into sin. There was a time when we who
believe now didn't know that. We didn't understand that. We
didn't have any idea about that. We didn't know the covenant made
at Mount Sinai was a covenant of works whereby God used Israel
to show man can't keep God's law. And we didn't know that
the law was given to shut our mouths and declare us guilty.
We didn't have any idea about that. They were strangers to
the covenants. We didn't know that covenant that God made with
Abraham I don't even remember, I remember there was a time I
didn't even know who Abraham was or if God even made a covenant
with Abraham, much less what that covenant was. That it was
an everlasting covenant of grace made before of God in Christ,
ordered in all things and sure in him. I had no idea about that.
We just didn't know anything. We were foreigners. We were strangers
and foreigners to God and to His saints. That's what we were.
He says, wherefore remember we were without hope because we
were without God in the world. Verse 12, having no hope without
God in the world. Do you see what I'm trying to
show you is that whether Jew or Gentile, Whether we were Jew
or Gentile, ethnos, that heathen race is what all of us were. Whether Jew or Gentile, uncircumcised
in the heart is what we were. Brethren, learn from the Jew,
learn from the proud unregenerate Jew, the Israelite, from our
own rebellion. Knowledge puffeth up. That's
what it does. Knowledge puffeth up. It's charity that edifies. It's having the love of God in
the heart that edifies together with the knowledge of Christ
and Him crucified. So brethren, in order to keep
us humble, to keep us glorying in His grace, and to keep us
remembering who made the difference, He says, wherefore remember.
Remember what you were. Remember what you were. And then
look at this. It's good for believers to remember
what we are now. To remember what we are now.
Verse 11. Wherefore remember, He says.
Now look down at verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You're made nigh by the blood
of Christ. We who were sometimes far off
from God, we who were far from God's saints, are now made nigh. It means made near. How near? How near have we been made to
God? You're going to like this. This
blessed my heart. The root word here is a verb
that means to squeeze in the inner curve of the arm. That's
what it means. Do you remember whenever scripture
says the parents brought the child Jesus to the temple to
do for him after the custom of the law? The law said when the
firstborn son You brought him to the temple and you brought
redemption money. You redeemed him. You redeemed
him. And you brought that redemption
money to the temple because the law required it. And you redeemed
that firstborn. And you remember of Simeon. When
Simeon was in the temple. And they brought the infant Lord
Jesus into the temple. And the scripture says, Then
took he him up in his arm. That word arms right there is
the root word of this word maiden eye. Now you get the picture,
ladies will get this especially. He didn't take him up like this
and hold him up like this. How do you hold an infant? He
took him in the curve of his arm right here and he held him
like this. And he said, now Lord, I've seen
thy salvation. I can depart now. I've seen your
salvation. That right there is what it is
to be made nigh. That's what it is. So get this
now. You who were sometimes far off,
but are now God's born again child. Christ, our Redeemer and our
redemption. He's our Redeemer and our redemption.
has brought you, cradled like a newborn babe in the curve of
His arms, into the Holy of Holies to do for you after the custom
of the law. That is, to present you washed
in His blood, faultless before the presence of God. That's what
it means to be brought nigh. That's what Christ has done for
His people. He's brought us like a newborn babe, cradled in His
arms, and presented us faultless before the Father. And He didn't
have to... He is the Redeemer, and He is
the redemption. How nigh has He made us? Look
back up at Ephesians 2, 6. It says, He raised us up together,
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, where does Christ sit? Hebrews
8.1 says, We have such a high priest set on the right hand
of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. So, we who were
sometimes far off are now seated together with Christ Jesus as
near as God's right hand. That's how close we are. That's
how near we are. How far off were we? We were
as far off opposite to how near we are. That's just how far away
we were. Now we're right there with Him.
We're right there near. That's something to remember.
That's something to think about. We're that close to our God. And then it says here, remember
now we have access to God our Father. Look at verse 18. For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Look over at Hebrews
10. He says we've been made nigh,
we've been made near, so that we have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. Whether Jew or Gentile, we both
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now look at Hebrews
10 and look at verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near, let us draw near with a
true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
We can draw near. We're there in Christ and He
says now you have access by the Holy Spirit by being regenerated
and born again to draw near to Him. And then look at this back
there in Ephesians. He says this also. Verse 19. Ephesians 2.19. He says, you're no more strangers
and foreigners now. Look at verse 19. Now therefore,
you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. This is grace. Now, we're fellow citizens with
the saints. You know what that means? Natives
of the same town. Something about that just seemed
close to me. Natives of the same town. That
town is heavenly Jerusalem. Jerusalem which is above. Paul
said, our conversation is in heaven. That's our citizenship.
It's in heaven. Whence also we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus. And then look what he says, and
we're of the household of God. God is our Father. Christ is
our elder brother. We're sons and daughters of God.
Paul said, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and in earth is named. We're named. You see there he
said, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
what we saw in the first hour? What did God do for Jacob? He
gave him his name. And Paul says, of whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named. We're all named after
Him. Named after Him. We have His
name. We're of His house. Of His house. And then look at
verse 20. Now you're God's building, and
you're built on the same foundation as the holy apostles and prophets,
and God dwells in us. Look at verse 20. And you're
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. He's the foundation.
He's the foundation. "...in whom all the building,
fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom ye also are builded together for habitation of God through
the Spirit." I'll tell you something that I like to remember. As I
was studying this, I got to thinking about it and I thought, this
is, you know, you'll hear folks say, well the Apostle Paul wants
you to know this, whatever. But this is God the Holy Spirit
that's moving Paul to tell us this in all these different ways
so that we can get a grasp of just how near and how one we
are with God. and with the Lord Jesus. It's
not enough to say to us that, you know, now you're made near. He says, now you're made near
and now you have access into God by the Holy Spirit. And that
wasn't enough. God's saying that. God the Holy
Spirit is moving Paul to this. And he says, now, you're no more
strangers and foreigners. Now, You are fellow citizens
with the saints, and you're of the household of God. And he
says, and you're built on the same foundation as Moses, and
Isaiah, but all the prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and you're
built on the same foundation as Paul, and Peter, and James,
and John. And Christ is that foundation
and we're fitly framed together in Him. And not only that, He
goes further and He says, and God dwells in you. In you. That's God saying this through
Paul. I like to know that because He's
telling us, you're inseparably one. You're inseparably one with
Him. There you were, far off. The
reproach And we were rightfully so. And now we're brought this
near to God. This near to God. I was listening
to a message and I heard Pastor Henry Mahan tell a story that
illustrates, that illustrated very well the things that it's
good for us to remember. He said that he and Sister Doris
was up at Fairmont, West Virginia back years ago and they were
visiting with Brother Scott Richardson. Brother Henry was preaching for
him there at Katy where Brother Marvin is the pastor now. And
Henry went up there and was preaching for Brother Scott. So while they
were there, Scott said, let's go out to eat. Let's take the
girls out to eat. So they go out to this fancy
seafood restaurant in Fairmont. And it was a nice place. He said they had treated them
like royalty, you know. And they had a very fine meal.
And they were sitting there eating. And as they were eating, out
of the blue, Brother Scott surprised Brother Henry and he said it
was a house they were in. You know how they'll take an
old house and they'll renovate it and make it into a restaurant.
This was an old two-story house. And they were sitting there eating
in a very nice place, you know. And all of a sudden, brother
Scott said, over 50 years ago, I lived in this house. And brother
Henry said, what? And he said, I lived in this
house over 50 years ago. And he said, growing up, we were
very, very poor. And he said, my daddy couldn't
always afford to keep me at the house and feed me And so I was
around eight or nine years old and he said, my daddy would farm
me out. And he said, he made a chest
of drawers and he gave it to the woman that owned this house
to put me up for a while. And he said, and I lived in the
attic. And he said, and I would do errands, run errands for this
woman and she would feed me. And Brother Henry said, he kind
of, Scott got to the end of his story and Brother Henry said,
Brother Scott, when you were that little poor
coal miner's son, and you were living up there in that attic,
separated from your daddy, separated from your mother, working to
have something to eat. He said, did it ever occur to
you that one day you'd drive up to this house in a brand new
Lincoln Continental and come in here and sit down to a white
linen tablecloth and all this fine china and eat this costly
meal and have money in your pocket to pay for everything And Scott
said it never crossed my mind. And he said, the more we sat
there and talked, the more we realized it's good to remember
where you come from, it's good to remember where you are now,
and it's good to remember who made the difference. That's the
third thing I want to show you, who made the difference. Lastly,
for us who believe, it's good to remember who made the difference. He says, first of all, remember
who brought us nigh, verse 13. You who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. It wasn't by the blood
of goats and calves. That went on for all that time
under the Old Testament. It wasn't by the blood of a goat
and a calf. He was by the blood of a man.
By His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. Believer, you can remember
this. God made the difference by His
own blood. That's right. By the sacrifice
of Himself. To be made nigh, to be brought
near, means it shall remain forever. Because God will never forsake
His own Son, He'll never forsake His justice. He'll never forsake
His own glory. And therefore, God shall never
forsake you who He's brought near. Ever. Never. For He is our peace. Look at
verse 14. For He is our peace who hath made both one. He's
our peace. You hear men say, I've made my
peace with God. I made my peace with God. A sinner
can't make his peace with God. A sinner don't want to make his
peace with God. A God-hating sinner, he don't
want to make his peace with God, much less have the ability to
make his peace with God. Only Christ, who's both God and
man, could make peace with God for us. Only He can. The Spirit of God is the only
one who can enter into a sinner and make us a new creation and
make us to be reconciled to God. For He is our peace who's made
both one and broken down the middle wall of partition between
us. That middle wall of dividing
God's elect from His Well, He divided God's elect
from God and from one another, is what it did. That middle wall
divided us from God and from one another. Because the example
given here is the Jew and the Gentile, but it was so with all
of us. We all used something to exalt
ourselves over one another. But Christ came and He makes
peace between God and His people because he abolishes the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances to make
of himself of two one new man and so make in peace. Under that
old covenant, God chose national Israel to be a peculiar people
to himself to show that God does the choosing. God chooses whom
he will, he passes by whom he will. You just think of all those
nations outside of Israel. That's to show us, brethren,
God chooses whom He will and passes by whom He will. The law
of commandments and ordinances was the ceremonial law. It was
circumcision, the Passover. It was the prohibition of certain
meats and things like that. And all of that was a picture
to show us God chooses whom He will, God gives them a new heart,
God shows them Christ is our Passover, and God gives us an
appetite for Christ, the bread from heaven, and that makes us
to differ from others. And God gets all the glory because
He did everything. But all those privileges being
only in the flesh did just what religion does. It just made us
exalt ourselves over one another. It made them do it. It makes
us do it. Sinners do it today. They do the same thing today.
It's a denomination today. Everybody's preaching, you know,
we're all preaching Christ. We're all going the same direction.
We're all going to get to glory. That's what they say. What they're
saying is Christ is common. That's not what makes us to differ.
Well, then what makes you to differ? What makes us to differ
is our denominations better than that denomination. What makes
us to differ is our instruments we use in singing is different
from their instruments they use in singing. Tell me if this is
not so in churches. What makes you to differ? Well,
it's we hold to this particular creed and this other group says,
no, we hold to this creed. It's all outward. It's all stuff
outward. What makes you to differ? Well,
we got all these programs that we offer. In other words, we
got all these programs that we offer. You see, it's all outward. And still, even today, most by
and large in the church, visible church, are Gentiles. And we
weren't even under the law. Never. We weren't under it. We
were out there in those heathen nations and yet men will pick
and choose parts of this law and still bring people back under
it. All to exalt oneself up and at the expense of another. And
Christ came, and He fulfills the whole law, and when He fulfills
the whole law, then He comes and reveals it in the hearts
of His people that He's fulfilled the whole law, and He brings
us all down to the level of worms, so that one worm can't exalt
themselves over another. And you know what it is when
one worm says, well, I feel like I'm being treated like I ought
to be treated. That's a worm exalting themselves. That's what
that is. pity it and call it what you
want to, that's what it is. I feel like I deserve to be treated
better. Might as well say it that way.
That's what it is. But when we're all worms in the dung where we grew up
and where we originate from, we stop exalting ourselves over
one another. And we all are at the feet of
Christ, and He's the one that gets all the preeminence. Because verse 15 says, He abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances. He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us and was contrary to us and
took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And so verse
15 says, He's made in Himself of two one new man and so He's
made peace. You take two men who were as
opposite as night and day. You just take a man that grew
up in South Arkansas and some men that grew up in New Jersey.
We don't have a lot in common in the way that we grew up probably.
But God takes two men and makes them one in Christ. Because the
stuff that used to make us differ, we now realize is just a bunch
of garbage. That's what it is. Now, Now,
we talk the way we talk, we walk the way we walk, we act the way
we act, we do what we do because we want God to be honored, we
want God to be glorified, we want Him to have the honor and
Him to have the glory. He's put some reverence in our
hearts for Him and we want Him to be honored and we don't want
to be the focus anymore. I'll tell you something, I traveled
around for about seven or eight years preaching before I came
here. And I went to a bunch of different
Grace Church. And I'll tell you what God's
people all have in common. They put their best foot forward.
Always. I don't care when it is, what
time it is, when it is. They put their best foot forward
in everything they do. Not to be seen, not for you to
look at them. And if most people looked at
them, they probably wouldn't think they were putting their
best foot forward compared to what the rest of the world does. But they put their best foot
forward in that they want God to be honored. They want Him
to be glorified. They want His people to be taken
care of. They want one another to be taken
care of. You know, when everybody's trying
to, when everybody's esteeming the other better than themselves,
so that they're showering the other with what they think the
other deserves, you got a bunch of people that's all putting
their best foot forward. That's just what that is. That's what
grace does in the hearts of his people. He becomes the peace of our conscience
when He's formed within His child, and He makes us repent from our
vain self-righteousness, and He makes us surrender to God
and to believe on Christ that He alone is our peace with God. Verse 16 says, that He might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby. So now in Christ neither circumcision
avails anything nor uncircumcision. We now see it's not outward practice. And you know, grace does a wonderful
thing. When you realize it's not outward
practice, your outward practice becomes better. That's right. It's not that we realize outward
practice doesn't matter so we start wearing thong bikinis everywhere
we go. No. Outward practice becomes
better. That's what grace does. It makes
you want to, it makes you want God to be honored. And we no
longer know one another after the flesh. We're not going around,
we're not going around trying to point out the faults of others
and expose others. That's not what we're doing at
all. And we remember this. We remember
that He revealed this in our hearts by coming to us and preaching
the gospel to us. Verse 17 says, He came and preached
peace to you which were far off and to them that were nigh. Did
Christ come to the Ephesians in person? No. No, he didn't come there bodily
in person and walk around while they were all worshipping the
goddess Diana and call them out in person. He sent Paul to them
and he called them out through Paul, through his preaching.
But he was there. He was there in spirit and he
called them out right there in person using that earthen vessel.
You know what? The same is true of us here today. It's true of us here today. The
authority of the gospel is Christ himself speaking through his
earthen vessels. The authority is Christ himself
speaking through his earthen vessels. I wish we really believed
that. If you knew Christ was preaching
at such and such a place, at such and such a time, I'll tell
you what is true of a believer, they would give Everything and
nothing would hinder them from being there to hear Him. That's
true. Well brethren, it's as true now
as it was when Paul spoke. And he said this, Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by
us. As though God did beseech you
by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. I've realized something about
this thing of preaching is that you can preach something and
you think you see it and you think you understand it when
you say it. But later on, if you look at
your notes or you hear it later on, you realize, did I say that? I didn't understand that. It's
like you have to be taught it all over again. God uses his people to speak
what he would have them speak. Now, maybe, maybe I'm what people
call me. Maybe I'm ethnos. Maybe I'm just one of them heathen
gentiles. Uncircumcised. Maybe that's it.
Or maybe God is using this earthen vessel to preach the gospel.
If He is, let's just say for chance He is, that means rather
than get upset, I ought to take heed and think, maybe God's speaking
to me. Maybe it's God that's speaking
to me. But that's not what flesh does,
unless God does what he did for Jacob. Puts him in the dirt.
We saw, last week I think, we saw what the flesh will do. They
came to Christ and said, how long are you going to make us
to doubt? They came to the Master and they said, we wish you'd
learn how to preach like us. If you could preach as good as
we can, we'd already understand what you're saying by now. They sat and listened to him,
and when they didn't understand what he said, they said, this
man's a gluttonous man. They went to John, and they listened
to John. They didn't understand what John said, and they said,
this man's a hick out in the woods preaching eating honeycomb.
We can't listen to him. He's not refined. Never stopped to consider, maybe
God's talking to me. Well, this is what he says, and
I think this is, I'm going to just read this, but I think this
is where Paul's going with this. We'll see this later. But look
at chapter 3, verse 1. He says, now, for this cause
I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, and
then as he does, as the Spirit moved him, he got carried away
in some things. And then come back over to, look over now at,
look at verse 14. Now he picks back up with, for
this cause. And he says, for this cause I
bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
talking about because of what we were, and what we now are,
and because of who made the difference. He says, Now for this cause I
bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he grant
you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that you be enrooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
that passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now to him that's able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh
in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout
all ages without end. You see, he just talked about
that exceeding great power. And then keep reading just a
few more verses. I want you to see it. I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. Paul, you shouldn't have said
that. You ought to just depend on the sovereignty of God and
not tell them to walk a certain way. beseech you that you walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith you're called, with all lowliness and
meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of
peace. There's one body, one spirit, even as you're called
and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who's above all and through all and
in you all. That's good news compared to
where we were, Carol. That's good news. Amen.