Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We're still looking at the general
theme of this epistle. And this is a very key passage
right here in Ephesians 1. We're going to look at this again
tonight, verses 19 through 23. Let's read this together. Paul
says, I want you to know what is the exceeding greatness of
His power to usward who believe. The exceeding greatness of His
power to usward who believe. According to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places. above all principality and power
and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only
in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put
all under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, that filleth
all in all." Now from eternity, God entrusted into the hand of
His Son the work of making His elect one with God. Christ has and He is bringing
His elect together in Him. And He's doing it by the exceeding
greatness of His power. That's the title of our message.
Our subject tonight is exceeding greatness, particularly the exceeding
greatness of His power. And I want to show it to you
in three ways. We'll see the exceeding greatness
of His power, number one, in His redemption, number two, in
regeneration, and number three, in reconciliation. in redemption,
regeneration, and reconciliation. In redemption, the exceeding
greatness of power by which God raised Christ from the dead was
the power of God's faithfulness to his son, to Christ, for fulfilling
the redemption of his people. God had made a promise to his
son. He made a promise to Christ.
that He'd raise Him once He accomplished the redemption of His people.
And that's what He did. And the power of God's faithfulness
raised Christ from the dead. The power of His unchanging Word,
His unchanging promise demanded He raise Christ from the dead.
Look at Isaiah 53 with me. Isaiah 53. Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. On
the cross, Christ pleased the Lord. He satisfied the justice
of God for God's elect. That's what it means. He pleased
the Lord. He satisfied the justice of God for God's elect. So God
is just and He's their justifier. God's plea. That's what it means.
It pleased God. It satisfied justice. Now here's
the everlasting covenant promise that God made to Christ the seed.
To Christ the seed in that covenant of grace. when he accomplished
that work of redemption. This was God's promise to him.
Look at verse 10. He says, When thou should make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
days. As the fruit of his sufferings,
having accomplished that redemption, God promised Christ that Christ
would see all that great number of that elect seed that the Father
gave to him. He would see all those children
risen to eternal life, to see their days prolonged. when God
the Father prolonged Christ's days by raising Him from the
dead and raising all that elect people in Him. That was His promise
to us for fulfilling that redemption. Look at verse 10. The pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. Now the pleasure
of the Lord is what pleased God. Whatever pleased God, that's
the pleasure of the Lord. We just read it pleased God to
bruise Christ. It pleased God to satisfy justice
for the elect of God by bruising Christ. in their place as their
substitute. That pleased God. And Christ's
hand accomplished it on the cross. What pleased God prospered in
His hand on the cross. He accomplished that work. Now
we're going to look at more on that a little later, but now
look at verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. This is God's promise to him.
He shall see of the travail of his soul. You know, a woman travails
when she has a child, and when she gets through having that
child, she wants to see that child that she travailed having.
Well, God, the Father said, Christ shall see the travail of his
soul. He's gonna see those children.
He's gonna see them and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great.
When Christ had accomplished His work on the cross, God promised
Christ an inheritance with God the Great. He promised to raise
Him and give Him an inheritance. That's what God promised Him.
Look at verse 12. and He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered
with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors." God promised Christ it would
be Christ's glory when God had raised Him from the dead and
given Him this great inheritance. It would be Christ's glory to
give, divide that inheritance that was His with those that
He redeemed and make them partakers with Him of His inheritance,
joint heirs with Him of that inheritance. God promised to
give that to Christ by raising Him from the dead. After He accomplished
His whole work, And so the exceeding greatness of His power that raised
Christ from the dead was the faithfulness of God to His Word,
the faithfulness of that promise that He made to His Son. Christ
accomplished that work, so that faithful promise demanded His
righteousness, His holiness, it demanded Christ be raised
from the dead. And this power, look back now
at Ephesians, This power was exceedingly great toward us who
believe, because when God raised Christ from the dead, He raised
all the elect of God with Him. Right then. Look at Ephesians
1.20. It says, God set Him at His own
right hand in the heavenly places. And look down at Ephesians 2.6.
And He hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Now believer, we've got the good
news. Here's the good news that He's brought to us. Look at Ephesians
1, 7. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. He had to accomplish that and
He did it. And in Him we have redemption, forgiveness of sins.
Look at verse 11. in whom also we've obtained an
inheritance." He promised. He said, I'm going to raise you
and you divide this inheritance with those that you've redeemed.
And so we have an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. Look at verse 13. Verse 13. At the end there,
we've been sealed with that Holy Spirit of what? That Holy Spirit
of promise. That Holy Spirit of promise.
All this is done by promise. It was God's promise to Christ
the seed. And it's Christ's seed, the seed's
promise to us who are that elect seed chosen in Him. And that
promise is this, that Holy Spirit of promise is the earnest of
our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession unto
the praise of His glory. It means an earnest is something
you leave to let somebody know you're coming behind, you're
coming back to get it again. It's yours, you bought it and
you're coming back to get it. And He's given us the Holy Spirit
of promise, promising us we have an inheritance. He's coming back
to get His children. He's coming back. Now, God the
Father is true to His word to Him. He's true to His word to
His children. That's how it is. So first we
see the exceeding greatness of His power in redemption. This
is why Christ was raised from the dead. He accomplished the
work. Nothing else to be done by His children. He's put away
their sin. Alright, but now secondly, in
the book The book sort of goes, Ephesians is a little different
from most of the other letters. It's dealing more with Christ's
work from His throne in glory. It kind of goes right over the
redemption work, gets through that, and then it gets to this
thing of Christ being on His throne now and what He's doing
now from His throne in glory. Look here, we see the exceeding
greatness of His power toward us who believe in regeneration. and regeneration. Now even though
the work of redemption was done, even though it's accomplished,
we came into this world dead in trespasses and in sins. Ephesians
2 begins and says, and you were dead in trespasses and in sins.
We were under the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now works in the children of disobedience. Now some of
us may have taken on a form of godliness. There may be some
here that have a form of godliness. I have no idea. Some of us may
have taken on a form of godliness, been very sincere about it, been
very sure and just certain God saved us. But you remember those
dry bones that the prophet prophesied upon? Their skin came upon them
and their bones came together and they had a form. They were
still dead. They were dead until the Spirit
came into them and gave them life. Then they became alive.
Now, how are God's select going to be made alive and Christ be
given all the glory? How's that going to happen? How's
that going to happen? Well, remember back there in
Isaiah 53.10. It said, the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in His hand. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in Christ's hand. Whatever it pleased the Lord
to do, it's going to prosper, it's going to be brought to pass
in Christ's hand, by His hand. Now just like the pleasure of
the Lord, it was the pleasure of the Lord to redeem His children
by Christ's hand, by what Christ did when He came into this earth
and went to the cross. And just like it prospered, just
like the Lord accomplished that, brethren, well, everything else
that it pleases the Lord to do, that's going to prosper in Christ's
hand too. It's going to prosper in Christ's
hand too. What are some things it pleased the Father to do?
What pleases the Lord? Well, Hebrews 11, 6 says, without
faith it is impossible to please Him. impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that
seek Him. It pleased God to save His children through faith in
Christ apart from any works of righteousness we've done whatsoever.
As Paul said in Galatians, this faith is going to come through
the hearing of faith, not through any works we've done. We cannot
do anything to give ourselves faith. We can't do it. There's
no work we can perform to get faith, not at all. It's going
to come through the hearing of faith. It's going to come through
hearing about Christ the faithful and what He's done. That's where
this faith is going to come. The Lord said, I said therefore
unto you that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe
not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. He said, no man
comes to the Father but by me. So we're going to have to believe
in Christ and trust Christ to bring us to the Father and present
us to the Father. We can't come to the Father.
Now that pleased the Lord. That pleased the Lord. Therefore
God raised Christ. And He gave Him to be head over
all things to the church. That's what our text says. He
gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is
His body, the fullness of Him, that Christ Himself might fill
all and all His children and all those He redeemed. Christ
is going to get the glory for giving us faith and repentance.
If you want to look at Acts 5.31, we'll see that. Let's look at
Acts 5.31. It might help us. Peter was being told, and the
apostles were being told and beat by men and told not to preach
anymore. They were being told not to preach
anymore. And he said, well, we're going
to obey God rather than men. We're going to bow to God's Word
rather than men. Christ said, told them to go forth. He said,
all powers given to me in heaven and earth, go forth and preach.
So Peter said, we're going to preach. And he started preaching
right there in verse 30. He said, the God of our fathers
raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. You thought
you got rid of him, Peter said. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand, a prince and a savior. He's the king. And He's the Savior. And He exalted Him for to give
repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. That's why He exalted
Him. To give repentance and forgiveness
of sins. And we're His witnesses of these
things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to
them that obey Him. He raised Christ up to grant
repentance to His children. And that faith might be given
to them through the Spirit by Him. Alright now. It's also the
pleasure of the Lord to give faith through the preaching of
the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1.21 says, after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God. That's the pleasure of the Lord. It pleased God. It pleased God. Well, that don't please me. I
don't think. It don't matter. It pleased God.
That's all that matters. Well, that's not how I came to
understand God. It don't matter. It pleased God.
We're not the touchstone of truth. My experience is not the touchstone
of truth. God's Word is. It pleased God. pleased him by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This
is how he's going to do it. Therefore God raised Christ to
send his preachers with the gospel to his people. Christ gives the
glory. Now you be sure you get this.
If you don't get anything else, get this. Listen to this carefully.
It is God's pleasure to give Christ in glorified human nature this gift and this glory because
He finished His cross work. He's the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all He might have the preeminence. For it pleased God,
the pleasure of the Lord that pleased God, that all fullness
dwell in Him. and of His fullness is how we're
going to receive grace for grace. Christ from Christ. Now listen
to this, Christ sending His gospel and Christ writing the words
of the everlasting covenant on the hearts of His people through
the Spirit is as much a part of the way Christ is the mediator
of the new covenant as His work on the cross. That is so. Christ sending His gospel and
writing the words of the everlasting covenant on the hearts of His
people through the Spirit is as much a part of the way Christ
is the mediator of the new covenant as is His work on the cross. All the glory is going to go
to Him. And please God that He have all preeminence. So, first
Christ the head exercises the exceeding great power that He
has by bringing the gospel to us. Ephesians 1.13 He said, in
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. Ephesians 2.17, he says, Ephesians
2.17, that He came and He preached to you which were far off and
to them that were nigh. He preached this through Paul.
He did. Look over at Ephesians 4.8. Now you listen to me. I'm not preaching to you my words. I want these words to be so plain
to you that you'll have to say, if you reject them, any man who
rejects them, he'll have to say, I'm rejecting the Word of God,
because this is God's Word. Look at Ephesians 4, and look
at verse 8. Well, verse 7 there tells us
at the end, that every one of us is given grace according to
the measure of the gift of Christ. You see that? Every one of us
is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. That means according to how Christ
gives it. Now look at verse 8. Wherefore
he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men. That came from Psalm 68. Is Christ
the fulfillment of the prophets? Does He fulfill all that was
written in the Scriptures? He said He did. He says He does. Well, this came from Psalm 68,
and in Psalm 68 it also adds, "...Yea, for the rebellious also,
that the Lord God might dwell among them." It means that for
those who are yet dead in trespasses and sins, He gave gifts unto
men for the rebellious also so that they might be born of the
Spirit of God and be brought to faith in Christ as well. And
it says there in Psalm 68 20, Unto God the Lord belong the
issues from death. He's getting the glory for doing
this. He's the prophet. He's the shepherd. Shepherd means
pastor. Did you know that? That's what
it means. It means pastor. Alright, look at verse 10. Well,
verse 9 says, now that He ascended, what is it? But that He also
descended first into the lower parts of the earth. That means
He came down to where we are. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill
all things. Do you see that? He is going
to fill. Fill them full. Fulfill all things. Fulfill all
things. Now here's these gifts He gave
for the rebellious. He gave some. You see that? And He gave. He ascended up and
He gave gifts unto men. And He gave. Christ gave. That's
who we're talking about. He gave some apostles, and some
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
Why did he give them? One reason. Just one reason.
Verse 12. For the perfecting of the saints. That's why. For the work of the
ministry. There's only one. For the edifying
of the body of Christ. There's only one. It's his body.
Now pay attention to verse 13. Till we all, till we all, all the elect of God, till we
all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God. Acts 3.21 says, Heaven must receive
Christ until the times of restitution of all things. Till the times
of restitution of all things. Restitution means restored to
our former state. That's what it means. In eternity,
when God chose His elect and put us in Christ, we were one
with God in Christ. But we lost that state in sin
and we became separated from Him. God gave Christ the glory
to make restitution. He gave Him that glory to restore
to our former state, the elect of God, to our former state.
And He's going to gather all His elect in Him. That's what
He gave Him the glory to do. The dispensation, you know what
dispensation means? It doesn't mean what men think
it means and what men give it the meaning of. Dispensation
means stewardship. That's what it means. The dispensation,
the stewardship of the fullness of times. is given to Christ. It's His stewardship. It's in
His hands and it's going to be in His hands until the times
of restitution of all things is accomplished by Christ. What
does that mean? It means time will not cease
until Christ gives all His people faith to believe on Him. Verse
13, Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God. Let me show you why this is slightly
more important than our system of theology that some man taught
us. It's because this body we're talking about is Christ's body.
That's why. Christ is the head and His church
is His body. Christ is the head, His church
is His body. It's the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. The fullness of Him. Christ's
body will not be complete until Christ has brought all the members
of His body to faith in Him. Look at verse 13. That's what
this means. Unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You see that
Christ's body will be full, it will be complete when all His
children have been brought to faith in Him. So this is in Christ's
hand to send His preachers with the gospel. Now look, listen
to this, look at verse 16. Christ does not merely send them
and hope then that now they'll be able to preach the gospel
and you'll be able to believe it. He doesn't do that. He sends
them and He preaches through earthen vessels into the hearts
of His people. We don't have any power. We're
just earthen vessels. The power is of God. It's of
Christ. Look at verse 16. From whom? You see that? From whom? The
body is fitly joined together. Christ does it. It's compacted
by that which every joint supplies. How does one joint in the body
have any supply of anything? How does one member, one believer
have any supply of anything whatsoever to add anything to this body? How is it? according to the effectual
working of Christ in the measure of every part. He's working in
the measure of every part, and it's Christ who makes increase
of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Back up there
at verse 7, he says, under every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. But no man can hear the
gospel and believe until he's been regenerated. He can't. He just can't do it. Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But a man can't
even hear it until he's been regenerated. So it's also Christ's
glory to send the Holy Spirit by whom we're born again from
above and given faith. You see, everything is by Christ.
That's what Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost. And folks,
these men, they were preaching. He manifested in great power
that day, and He showed these men were preaching the gospel
in languages they had never learned. They weren't speaking in tongues
and getting up like men say, speaking in tongues and speaking
gobbledygook. They weren't doing that. They
were preaching the gospel in languages they had never learned,
because the Spirit of God had come into them and taught them,
and they were preaching this gospel. And you know what Peter
stood up and said to them? The men said, these fellows are
drunk, don't listen to them. And Peter stood up and he said,
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, Christ Jesus
hath shed forth this which you now see and hear. He's done this. Christ has done this. Do you
understand what I'm saying? Christ does this. So back up
there in Ephesians 1, as soon as chapter 1 ends saying Christ
is head of His body and that He fills all in all, chapter
2 opens with, and you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses
and in sin. The glory is Christ. If you want
Christ to have the glory, I'm telling you, this is how Christ
has the glory. The exceeding great power which
raised Christ from the dead raises up each of his elect from the
dead in regeneration through the Spirit of Christ which he
sins. That's exactly so. And thereby
we're given faith to believe on him. Look at verse 8. For
by grace are you saved through faith. That's how it's done.
That's how it's done. But what if somebody dies before
they have faith? They won't if they're Christ.
He's that sovereign. All power has been given to Him.
God's sovereign. Either He is or He ain't. Either
He can do things like it pleases Him to do or He can't. Oh, you're
limiting in the power of God. If I have all power to do something
the way I want to do it, and I do it the way I want to do
it, that's not limiting my power. That means I have the power to
do it the way I want to do it. This is the pleasure of the Lord.
This is how it pleased Him and how it pleased Him to do it.
He's going to do it the way it pleased Him to do it. I give
you an umpteen gillion reasons why men don't want it to be this
way, but it comes down to this. They want the glory. Man wants
the glory. That's right. His money is his
salvation. He wants to hold on to it. He
don't want to join with the church. He don't want to support the
ministry. Or he wants to have the glory for giving himself
the pat on the back for bringing himself to a knowledge of Christ.
He's not going to have it. Better to find that out now than
to find it out in glory. Grace, by grace are you saved
through faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast, for we're His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. And we are. This is what Ezekiel, the son
of man in Ezekiel, I've been reading this, the son of man,
whenever Christ went to the cross, he said, now is the son of man
glorified. He called himself the son of
man, more than anything, because it's not as God the son that
he's been given this headship. He had all power as God the son
from the beginning. He's equal with God. It's in
his mediatorial work as the servant of God being being glorified
as the Son of Man, and glorified in human flesh. The God-man has
this power to do this. And so in Ezekiel, he said this,
I'll take you from among the heathen, and I'll gather you
out of all countries, and I'll bring you into your own land.
You know when that was done? That was done whenever Christ
raised from the dead and went into our own land, that place
He said, I'm going to prepare for you. That heavenly Jerusalem
is going to come down from out of heaven. That's where He went.
That's where He went. And then it says, Then will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and you'll be clean from all
your filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse you?
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you. That's regeneration through the
gospel. That's regeneration to the gospel. He's doing this from
his throne in glory. Just please, just go home and
read Acts from the day of Pentecost to the end and find me one sinner
saved any other way than by Christ sending him a preacher, preaching
the gospel to him. The only one is Paul, but he was an apostle. He had to be called directly
by Christ. But the rest of them was saved through him sending
him a preacher. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he can't enter the Kingdom of God. He's got to be born again.
That's what Christ said. He said, verily, verily. That
means this is just so. Except a man be born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. He's
doing it. He's doing it. The pleasure of the Lord prospers
in Christ's hand. Christ adds to the church daily
such as should be said. This is the chief reason that
Christ's churches below are independent and have no church over us here
below. It's because from above, our
head makes all provision for His church. He does. He provides
pastors. He gives us life. He gives us
repentance. He gives us all material blessings
so His church can continue sounding forth His gospel. He saves us
through preaching, not just when He calls us and gives us faith
and repentance, but all our life. This is vital. It's how He's
uniting His sheep together. It's how He's teaching us things
you can't learn outside of a family of God. You can theoretically
know something about what it is to be married and have a husband
or a wife, but until you're married and in a family, you don't know
anything about it. You can talk about being a child and having
brothers and sisters, but until you're in a family with brothers
and sisters, you don't know anything about it. There's things God
teaches us by uniting us with His body in His local church
that we can't learn other ways. And this is how it pleased Him
to do it. Here's the third thing. We see the exceeding greatness
of His power in reconciliation. Look at Ephesians 2 verse 11.
Wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hand, that at that time you were without
Christ. You were being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope without
God in the world. Now, God promised from the beginning
that He was going to gather all things in Christ, by Christ. And they were going to be presented
to God, the Father, in one, in Christ. He was going to present
them all to the Father, having brought them all together in
one. But now for that to come about, there had to be some separation
and some division. And by allowing great, great
separation and great, great division to come about in the earth, God
is giving greater glory to His Son for having brought His people
together in one from all that division. You think about the
division. Think about it. First, we sinned in Adam, and
we were separated from God. It's our sin always that causes
the division. We were separated. In Christ,
the elect remained one in Him, but because we sinned in Adam,
and being born of incorruptible seed, we came forth separated
from God, hating God and hating one another. And then languages
and nations and continents separated us. There was just three children
that came from Noah, and that's where all of us came from, from
those three. And they all spoke one language.
And speaking one language, they decided this was a grand idea
they'd come up with, we'll work our way up to God. We'll build
a tower up to God. And so God came down and saw
what they were doing and he confounded the languages and made it so
they couldn't speak to one another anymore. They didn't know each
other's language anymore. And sometime around that time,
he divided the continents. You know this, when we got back
from Mexico, I looked this up because we went to those pyramids
down there. You know, every continent has towers, pyramids, and different
kinds of tower structures, and almost every religion in the
world speaks about a great tower that was being built, and God
divided everything. He confounded the languages,
and he split the continents at that time. So there's further
division. Now you've got some elect over
here in this nation, some in this nation, some over here.
They're divided. They're split up. And then further separation
came through Israel and the Gentile nations. God revealed the gospel
to Abraham. And he told Abraham that in Christ
the seed, God would save one holy nation from among all the
nations of the earth. That's the gospel. That's what
he said he was going to do. And God alone creates that one
holy nation. And to illustrate that, God formed
one holy nation called Israel from among all the nations. And
then God sanctifies His people into His holy nation by writing
His laws, the words, the doctrine, the gospel of this everlasting
covenant of grace accomplished by Christ the seed on our hearts. And that's how He sanctifies
us and separates us so that we want to hear the gospel, we don't
want to hear this garbage men preach about making themselves
holy and separate. Well, God illustrated that by
making an earthly covenant with that earthly Israel full of earthly
promises. And He did so giving laws, not
in the heart, on tablets of stone at Mount Sinai. And by that covenant,
God just physically, carnally speaking, actually speaking,
He separated Israel from the rest of the nations. God did
that. But understanding nothing but
the letter, not having any spiritual discernment, you know what the
majority in Israel did? They circumcised themselves in
the flesh and in a pretense of law-keeping. They, not to worship
Christ, but to exalt themselves over others. Israel said, you
Gentile uncircumcision in the flesh, stay away from us. We're
holier than you by all our law keeping. That's what they did.
That's exactly what men are doing today that have no spiritual
discernment whatsoever. They're using the law of God
to separate themselves. That's not what it pictured.
That's not even what it was showing or teaching. So further separation
divided God's elect in Israel from the Gentile nations. And
then further separation came between those in Israel. The
original twelve tribes, ten and a half of them split over here
and became the house of Israel, and they split off and divided
against the house of Judah, and the house of Judah would have
nothing to do with the house of Israel, or it's called Samaria,
and they wouldn't have anything to do with Judah. So there's
further division. Now you've got some elect over
there in that house and some over here in this house. You
see, it just gets splintered and splintered and splintered.
And then further separation came because of all these carnal differences.
Men fought by the strength of their hand and decided they'd
have wars and take greater control over other men. And then all
these differences between all these vain religions and all
these vain practices they go about. Men will separate themselves
because one plays the piano and one don't. Who cares? Who cares? Really? I mean, just
crazy things. Male and female. Educated and
uneducated. Bond and free. Rich and poor.
And all the while, keep passing civil laws, civil laws, and saying,
oh, we're going to bring everybody back together. And none of it
has ever worked. Never worked. So our sin separated us. It just
kept separating us all the way through. And Paul says, that's
where you and me were. That's what he said there. That's
where we were. We were hating God. We were hating one another.
We were without Christ, without hope, without God in the world.
And men will continue using the Word of God unlawfully that way,
whether they get it out of the Old Testament or the New Testament.
They'll use it that way to make carnal distinctions because we
do it this way and you don't do it that way. We think this
and you don't think that. The only thing that separates
our gospel from any other gospel is our gospel says Christ does
it all. Christ does it all. And a man
will keep on with that garbage until Christ the seed comes to
whom the promise was made. And He comes two ways. Look at
this. God let this whole world become thoroughly divided from
Him and from each other and then He sent forth His Son. And His
Son brings His people together by His blood and by creating
us anew in the heart. Look at verse 13. Now in Christ
Jesus you sometimes were far off or made nigh by the blood
of Christ. by the blood of Christ. He's
our peace. He's broken down. He's made both one. He's broken
down the middle wall of partition. He broke down the whole earthly
temple, the whole earthly priesthood, the earthly sacrifices, all that
old covenant. You know how? Verse 15, having
abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, He nailed them to His cross, Paul said.
He fulfilled it, Paul said. For to make in Himself of two
one new man, so making peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
That's the first way he makes reconciliation. That's that work
he accomplished on the cross, that reconciliation. Here's the
second way he does it. He sends that spirit through
the gospel into our hearts, and we're born of the incorruptible
seed, and he makes us see for the first time, there's nothing
any different in you than any other man. We're all worms. All
worms, that's it, period. And until he makes us see that,
we'll keep bringing up that old carnal distinction and trying
to make our distinctions about what we did. Look, he came and
he preached peace to you which were far off and to them which
were nigh, for through him we both have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. Now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God. Look at Ephesians 3.14. Ephesians
3.14. There's one family. Look at this. 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. Look at Ephesians 4. There's
one body, 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's above all and through all and in you all. Look at verse
25. Wherefore putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we're members one
of another. Look at Hebrews 5.30. were members
of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Look at verse 32. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. He's made His people
one. Now turn to Jeremiah 23, and
I'm going to close with this. Jeremiah 23. During the days of the Old Covenant,
whenever Israel faced some great foe, They were always reminded
of the great power of God, that he had worked for them. And they
were reminded of that power. They were reminded of how God
used Moses and instructed them concerning the Passover lamb.
And when they got under the blood, they got in the house under the
blood, and God saw the blood. He passed over them that night.
He smote all the firstborn in Israel. And by that, Pharaoh
let them go and he delivered them out of Egypt. They were
said, remember that power now when they were facing all these
foes and all these dangers and saw this weakness in their flesh.
Or they were told, remember how Moses led them to the Red Sea?
And there God told Moses, tell the people, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. And they stood still, and God
departed the Red Sea, and they went across on dry ground, and
then He destroyed all their enemies in the sea. They said, remember
that power now. Or then they were told, remember
the power when God used His priests and said, just hold up the ark
and just tell everybody, look at that ark, that picture of
Christ. And as they looked at that ark, He dried up the sea
and they went across on dry ground and God delivered them. He said,
they'd always tell, look, look, remember those problems, remember
that power that God worked. But then they said, but there's
coming a power that's going to be exceedingly greater than that
power. And when it comes, we're going
to stop talking about that earthly deliverance. We're going to start
talking about that earthly deliverance. It pictured something far greater.
Then we're going to start talking about that. And it's a spiritual
deliverance. And that's why he says in Jeremiah
23, 5, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll raise
unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and do
what? Prosper. Because the pleasure
of the Lord is going to prosper in his hand. This is that one
that's raised, the exceeding greatness of God's powers, Christ,
the power and wisdom of God. And he's executing judgment and
justice in the earth right now. And in his days Judah shall be
saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the name
whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Therefore,
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, they shall no more
save the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out
of the land of Egypt. That's just carnal. But the Lord
liveth which brought up and which led. The seed. The seed. Go listen to One Seed and One
Seed from Sunday. This is that seed. The seed of
the house of Israel out of the north country and from all countries
where I had driven them and they shall dwell in their own land.
I tell you, when are we going to want Christ to reign and prosper
in this glory as our head? And overall, when we finally
see we have no strength. Until then, we won't. Until then,
we won't. Until then, we'll keep bringing up all these old covenant
things because we really and truly, if we don't, whether we
know it or not, we want to hold on to the law. We want to make
some distinction between our flesh and the earthy things and
earthy things and earthy things and earthy things. This thing's
spiritual, brethren. But as our flesh grows older
and weaker, and as we face trials and sickness and death, When
we face false preachers building up carnal walls and fleshly distinctions
by their law-keeping, when this church again is persecuted, which
shall be for a little season, to where we don't have any strength.
Paul says, in all those times, look to the exceeding greatness
of his power. And He said in Colossians 3,
verse 1, If you are risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set
your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for
you are dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.
The exceeding greatness of His power redeemed us, regenerated
us, and reconciled us to God. And Christ our Head is ruling
all things in heaven and in earth, good and evil, right now, and
no one and nothing is hindering His progress in His work. Nobody. And in the fullness of times,
when He has restored all to the former state by Him, Christ the
seed shall present to the Father one united holy seed, to gather
together in one, all by the work of His hand, by the exceeding
greatness of His power. And then we're going to rejoice
in Christ forevermore in the new heavens and the new earth,
wherein shall be the righteous creation of our God-man mediator. Everything there be what he did
and we're going to praise the glory of God for doing it this
way That's right, and we'll let everybody else that wants to
earthy. We'll let them have it they can have amen