We'll push buttons and do technical
things But if you would look at Ephesians
chapter 2 And no, I'm not gonna preach on verse
8 I Might mention it But I want to begin reading in verse 11.
Just want to read the verses 11 through 13. I Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11,
wherefore remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the
flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at the time ye were without Christ. being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ." I'm just going to stop there. Ephesians 2 Paul does some marvelous
things Preaches some marvelous words Now remember and we learn
in verse 1. I mean in chapter 1 well verse
1 This letter is addressed to the Saints and the faithful in
Christ Jesus And all through chapter 1 he tells us of that
great work. He's done and Walter, you mentioned
it the other day, Father, Son, Spirit, it's all there, and it's
glorious, and it's wonderful. Then in chapter two, Paul starts
off, well, this is our division, but this is how we do have it
divided. In chapter two and verse one,
he starts off in you who were dead. After all that glorious
stuff that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit have
done to you, for you, and in you, Paul says, well, remember,
you were dead in trespasses and in sin. You were dead. And then he goes on in verse
five, and when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together
with Christ by grace, ye are saved. And he makes that wonderful
statement in 8 through 10. And now he comes back into verse
11. And he starts over again. And
he says, wherefore, because of all this beforehand that he said,
you were dead, now you've been quickened. But he does say, wherefore,
because of that, remember. Remember. Being in times past
ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh Wherefore Remember now what I
want to talk to you today about is five things being without
Christ or without Christ five things And then I'm going to
do it Christ five things But wherefore Paul wrote this
Because you were dead in sins and because you have been quickened
both of those things Paul gives these instructions
only to those who were dead and are now alive Those that are
still dead got nothing to remember This is written to the Saints.
This is written to believers. This is who this instruction
is for it doesn't do the dead any good to remember Because
all they can remember is the way they are right now But we
we Believers are the only ones I've
said this before I'll say it again Believers are the only
ones who know the difference between death and life. And that's
only because they have been given life. I'm not talking about election. We're going to be talking about
being without Christ and being in Christ. Election has a very
lot to do with that, but that's not salvation. This is talking
about the conversion to believers of these Gentiles. We know now exactly who Paul
was writing to here. He was writing to Gentiles, which
is what we are. But then he says, wherefore,
remember, ponder, think about what has gone before. As I said,
this is only to the converted. And this is specifically addressed
to the Gentiles. Now we don't, in this day and
age, you don't see a big deal made of the difference between
the Gentiles and the Jews. We've kind of wandered away from
that. Because he'll go on in this chapter,
as far as believers are concerned, Jew and Gentile, he's made of
the twain, one new flesh, one new man. Jewish believers are members
of the church just as we are That's the way it is that's what
Paul teaches here that middle wall of partition is gone Christ
did that and he did it on purpose and he did it according to his
plan There is no difference in the church But you were Gentiles
after the flesh You were called uncircumcision by that which
was called the circumcision made with hands. That's a very key
point, made with hands. There's a reason we were called
the uncircumcision, and Paul called them that, because they
were uncircumcised. This was the sign given to Abraham
in the Old Testament. And at that time, when Paul was
alive, being called uncircumcision by that which was the circumcision,
called the circumcision, made with flesh, that was not a compliment. At best, it was descriptive.
At worst, and probably as usual, it was an insult. You aren't
part of us. You are without. They were making
that division and it is a division that God made in the Old Testament. It was real. It was actually
done and it was given only to the children of Abraham. And
it was to be done. But then Paul goes on a little
later on in another book to tell you that circumcision is of the
heart. and of the Spirit. And that's
the part that really matters. That's what circumcision in the
Old Testament was a picture of. There is a separation and it
is In this case, with circumcision, it was made in the flesh. But
now it is made in the heart, in the spirit, by the spirit
of God in every one of his children when he brings them in. And it was the Jews that called
them this, the circumcision. But it was the circumcision made
by flesh. physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac Abraham's got a lot of descendants
that ain't through Isaac. That's not who he was talking
about he was talking about the circumcision They were those that were descendants
by the flesh even if they were not by the spirit But here, Paul
is going to tell us here, this next statement, verse 12,
that at that time ye were without Christ. And what's he telling us to do?
Remember, remember, without Christ, This is what we are to remember.
That time. Remember that time. Walter, remember
the pit from which ye are digged. Remember that ye were Gentiles,
unbelieving and unrepentant. And if you can't tell the difference,
you might want to check your calling in election. Because
there is a difference. That time is what we are to remember
and then Paul tells us and gives us this description, these five
things of what it means to be without Christ. I'll just list them here. Being aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel, that's number one. Strangers from the covenants
of promise, that's number two. Having no hope, that's number
three. Without God, that's number four. And in the world, that's number
five. This is Paul's description of
what it means to be without Christ. And this is Paul's description
of what each and every single one of us were. And we are told
to remember this. We were without Christ at that
time. Now, also, this is very specifically
personal and individual. He says, ye were without Christ. I can't remember for you. And
you can't remember for me. This is personal. This is what
we are to individually remember. And my experience was not your
experience, and your experience is not my experience, and Walter's
experience wasn't Paul's experience. He works individually in each
and every one of his children. But we are to individually remember. This is a intensely personal
thing. We were all in the same boat.
Every single saint and every single one who's faithful in
Christ Jesus, we were all there, dead, in trespasses and in sins. But Paul says, I want you to
remember. I can remember interactions with
other people. I can remember some things Walter
and I talked about 32 years ago. Not much of it, but some of the highlights. And
he remembers things that I have forgotten. But I can't remember
his experience. And he can't remember mine. It
is an individual salvation, an individual deliverance to each
and every child of God. The good shepherd calls his sheep
by name. And his pit is not my pit. My pit is not your pit. It never
has been. But we were all in a pit. And
we were all, have been, and are, digged out of that pit. And we
are to remember that. There is absolutely, positively,
no worse way to be than to be without Christ. And believers know that. And
we are to remember that. There is nothing without Christ
except death. Paul wouldn't have written this
if not led to it by the Holy Spirit because this is an important
thing and this is a past tense thing. He is writing to, as I
said, the converted elect, those who have been brought into Christ.
There was a time when you weren't in Christ. This is very important. I mean, we preach election here.
We believe election strongly. But election does not put you
in Christ. He does. He does. You are chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. It's absolutely certain that
this is going to happen, but it has to happen. He has to bring
you in. So you can remember the pit from
which you are digged, because you have been digged out of that
pit. You get to remember, and you are to remember, the dunghill
from which you've been lifted. It's in the past, but it's real,
just as real as everything else in these scriptures. He says, after this, being without
Christ, he says, you, he's making this personal all the way through,
you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You were Gentiles. But you were aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel. That's the way he put it here.
Now, it's kind of funny because the word aliens here is actually,
the word stranger is actually better classified as the word
aliens. This word aliens translates as, I like this, non-participant. You are a non-participant of
the commonwealth of Israel. You didn't have any participation
in the things of God. Now the commonwealth, it's actually,
that is a political word. It's talking about citizenship.
And then you have the word Israel and that means prince with God.
So you're a non-participant of the citizenship of a prince with
God. That's what this means. You were
as far from it as you could be. Whether you knew about it or
not, you did not participate in it. Because ignorance is around
us. I will plead ignorance when God
converted me. I was as ignorant as the truth
of God as you can be. I was just hearing scripture
and the Bible for the first time, even after 23 years of life.
And I'd been around the Catholic Church, and they do quote some
scriptures, they read stuff every week, but I didn't listen. And
I didn't do any reading on my own. Not until he did something
for me. Not that it did me any good,
even if I had. I was not a participant of the
citizen, the country, the nation of Israel. I didn't have anything
to do at all with the prince, with God. And I was happy. I was happy that way. You know,
they say ignorance is bliss, and sometimes it is. Sometimes
it is. Because what you don't know,
you don't think about. And I didn't think anything of
Christ. I mean, I saw some of the movies.
I saw, you know, I could not watch the Ten Commandments, I'm
sorry. I don't like Charlton Heston. I never have. It's just
a personal thing. But I didn't care about that
kind of stuff. I was as non-participant as you can get. And that's what
this is talking about. This is where I was. And the commonwealth being a
political word denoting citizenship, I didn't belong to that group
that was with the prince with God. I didn't belong with that
group at all. Israel had a definite relationship
to God. He was a prince. Now, how did
he get to be a prince? Well, God made him one. God took
a fellow named Jacob and gave him that name. He wasn't born
Israel. He was born Jacob, the usurper.
But then he was born from above. And God changed his name to call
him Israel. Israel was a child of the king,
a child of God, but he did not make himself a prince with God. God did. Isaiah 41 verse 14, I'll just
read it, put it this way. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. Now we all know, we've talked
about it before, that what that word worm means, it means maggot,
red maggot. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Jacob had a Redeemer. The worm had a Redeemer. He had a relationship with God.
I had no relationship with God. He didn't either until God made
me. And we are to remember this.
This is part of what it means to be without Christ. We are
non-participants of the things of God. Then it says, strangers to the
covenants of promise. Here, that Greek word is xenos,
which is where we get our word xenophobe, which means someone
who is terrified of aliens. And that can mean space aliens,
or it means foreigners from another country. That's all it means. But this is the word, aliens, total and complete foreigners. to the covenants of promise. Totally outside the covenants
of promise as they had been revealed in this whole testimony. Now I do want to call your attention
here to two things in particular. Covenants is plural. But promise is singular. He does say, we were strangers,
we were aliens, we were foreigners to the covenants of promise.
There have been covenants, plural. Just start off with the Abrahamic
covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the law and the sacrifices, The Abrahamic covenant was circumcision,
and then there's David who says, God has made with me an everlasting
covenant. And then we come to the new covenant.
And that he said that it was a new covenant, he made the first
old. But notice, there have been covenants, plural, but there
is only one promise. Those covenants all pointed to
the same promise. That's the promise of Jesus Christ. That's the promise of the Messiah.
The circumcision pointing to the circumcision of the heart,
the circumcision of the spirit, the law and the sacrifices which
were to be our schoolmaster. And our schoolmaster is our schoolmaster,
the law, to bring us to God. There were purposes for these
covenants, but then the new covenant came. with our Lord Jesus Christ,
just as it said in the Old Testament, He was going to come. They were
looking forward to the Messiah, and the Old Testament tells us
a lot of things that Christ was going to do. Isaiah 53 goes through the death
of Christ in graphic detail, and the spiritual ramifications
of it where God has made Him an offering for sin. where God
has laid on him the iniquity of us all where he bore the sins
of many in that he died all that pointed toward this
new covenant and that promise the Messiah was going to come
the Messiah was going to live and die and his blood was going
to be shed We were absolute aliens to the
truth of Jesus Christ, and his work, and the promise of his
coming, and his coming, and his resurrection, and his acceptance
toward God, his acceptance by God, his sacrifice acceptance
for his people. We were totally aliens from that. And that's what it means to be
without Christ. You don't know anything about it, you have no
part in it at that time. You don't know anything about
it. There's one promise, there's
one gospel, there's one message, there's one record. One way,
one truth, one vine, one olive tree, and there's one promise
again. And that promise is to know God in Christ Jesus and
to be found in him. And he says you have no hope.
This world is looking for a hope. But they're not looking at Christ.
They don't want anything to do with Him. They want to ban Him
from school. They want to ban Him from church. They don't want it. They don't
want Him. They don't want the hope. that
lies within us now. This hope that we have now, which
Christ is our hope, we didn't have. There was none, no hope, not
even a little, Walter, not even a little spark to fan into a
flame. We were dead in trespasses and
in sin and we had no hope. And he says, you were without
God. Well, to be without Christ is
to be without God. That's what it means. That's
what it means. If you know Christ, you know
the Father. If you know Christ, you know
the Spirit. And if you're without Christ,
you don't know Father, Son, or Spirit. You do have no hope. And you are without God. And
the last thing, you are in the world. He stated that at the beginning
of the chapter. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, following the prince and the power of the air, you are
in the world. And if you were like me, you
were happy to be there. I was making the best of a bad
situation. That's all I knew was the world.
That's all I had was the world. And we are told to remember all
of this. Remember the pit from which you
are digged. You might have had religion,
but you didn't have true religion in the world. But the beauty of this statement,
all of that, that one verse, verse 12, is because of verse
13. But now, but now, in Christ Jesus. What's the opposite of being
without Christ? It's to be in Christ. Ye who sometimes were afar off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So what does it mean
to be in Christ? It means to be made nigh. Now,
made, you don't come nigh, even though you come to it. You are
made nigh. It's not something you do. This
is a word of creation. This is a word of power from
the outside. You become nigh because of what
he has done. He has placed you in himself. You are in Christ, not without
Christ anymore. So the five things that means
to be in Christ. You are a participant, a citizen of Israel. That's what
Paul says. Again, this is all individual.
But you become a participant. You fellowship in the covenants
of promise. You have hope in Christ. You have Christ. Who is our hope? You are no longer godless without
God. And you are not of the world. You're in it still, but you're
not of it. And there's a world of difference
there. There's a world of difference. Those are the five things. But
now we participate in the citizenship of the Prince
with God of Israel. The only reason you are out of
the pit and stay out of the pit is that now you're in Christ. Now I know there's a lot of people
who say that the church is now Israel. And I disagree. Why? Because it ain't so. I mean,
that's just all there is to it. Read Romans. Just go ahead and
read it. There's Romans chapter 11. You'll
find out. It ain't so. We, as Gentiles, are a wild olive
tree. And we have been grafted into
their tree. But now there are others who
want to say that, oh no, we're totally separate. No, we're in
that tree. You understand? The illustration
given, there's one tree. There's only one tree. And now
we are a participant in that tree. We have been grafted in. We get what from the root and
the fatness of that tree. What do we get? That's where
we get our nourishment. There's a wild olive branch,
a wild olive tree grafted in. That's where we get it from.
They haven't been kicked out. We've been grafted in and They
can be grafted back in just like Paul continues on to say in there That doesn't make us Israel Paul
tells us what we are in this book we are the church Both Jew
and Gentile now believers make up Christ's body and members
in particular. Christ has broken down that middle
wall of partition. But we are participants now.
We do partake of the root and the fatness. We do gain our nourishment
from that one tree that we've been grafted into. And now we fellowship in the
covenants of promise. Mason, I know more about covenants
than I ever knew in my life. but you fellowship in it. You rejoice in what God did in
the past. You rejoiced in what God showed
those Old Testament saints. They were a lot smarter than
most churches ever give them credit for. David was looking
for his king. Abraham was looking for a place.
Noah was looking for redemption, for salvation. They knew a lot
more and you read Isaiah. My gosh, you just might as well
go home Because Isaiah preaches more in those in that book than
most churches will ever hear in the lifetime of that church
No matter how short it is down the road They knew the truth of God in
Jesus Christ they knew the Messiah was coming not all of them but
but the ones who were chosen from before the foundation of
the world. God revealed it to them and he's kept this record
and he's given it to us. I like the Old Testament. I like
reading about my Lord in the Old Testament and seeing those
pictures in the ark, God's ark, in the ark of the Testament,
in the tabernacle. And then Isaiah, especially from
chapter 40 on. I mean, everything in it is just
resounding with what my Lord was going to do when he got here.
And then I have the gospels and it tells me what he did while
he was here. We fellowship in those covenants, but we fellowship
in this new covenant that he's given us. This new testament
made with his blood. And you love the one single promise. We're no longer aliens. We're
no longer strangers. We have been made of the household
of God. We're family. We're part of God's
family. If you're in Christ, that's what
it means. You're in God's family. And God takes family even more
serious than West Virginians do. or anybody else for that
matter. You know, they have clans and
feuds and all that in our history. And hill people are a strange
bunch, I will grant you that. And I like living here. But nobody takes family any more
serious than God. He chose them in His Son before
the foundation of the world and He is bringing them into His
Son. through the Holy Spirit will
bring you in, into Christ, literally. And you will no longer be a stranger
to the covenants of the promise. And you are no longer godless,
without God. You know now, Father, Son, and
Spirit, all the triune God, the three
who are one, are revealed in this book and revealed to you.
You are not of this world. You're still in it, but you're
not of it. Remember, you were a far off,
but now you have been made nigh. You've been made nigh. And what
does nigh mean? Near. You're Suneer, you're in
the family. You're Suneer, you're part of
his body. That's pretty near. If he's your head, you're a part
of his body. That's about as nigh as it can
get, Mason. You've been made nigh. And it says it by the blood
of Christ. The death of Christ, the shedding
of his precious blood was absolutely necessary. Because it is the
blood that speaketh of better things. So what have we got here? Remember
where you were and, and know where you are. Know where you are now. Now,
we are made nigh. Now, we are in Christ. Now. Now, we have hope. As Paul said later, if we have
hope in this world only, we are most miserable. even when you don't know you're
most miserable. But we don't have a hope only in this world. We have a hope in the world to
come. Why? Because we've been made nigh.
We are in Christ. He has brought us up off the
dunghill to sit with princes and kings. And we are to remember
this, both things, where you were and where you are. It's
important to know where you came from and to know what state you
are in. But it is also of extreme importance
to know what state you are in now. You are in the Lord of Lords
and the King of Kings. You are in Christ. Never forget
the pit from which you're digged. Never forget the dunghill you've
been lifted from. Now don't go back there. Remember,
that's what he says. Don't live there, remember. And above all, don't glory in
it, but do remember. And never forget the maggot you
still are. And never forget there's a redeemer
for those who know they are maggots. Never forget the glorious, merciful,
graceful salvation of God. That's how great this salvation
is. This is where you were, and this
is where you are. We are now in Him. And that is the most glorious,
most wonderful, most beautiful place to be, is in Christ. And we are made nigh unto Him. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time, this place. Thank you for your grace, your
mercy, your love, your compassion, your life, your death, your burial,
your resurrection. Father, thank you for sending
your Son to redeem his people. And thank you for revealing that
redemption in us, and through us, and in your Word, and that
we are indeed now in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.