Ephesians 2. Verse 13 again. But now in Christ
Jesus, you who sometimes were afar off, are made near, made
nigh, nigh to God by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace,
who hath made both one, Jew and Gentile one, and has broken down
the middle wall, a petition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For
to make in himself of two one new man, so make in peace. And that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and
to them that are nigh. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father." Paul wrote continually in his
epistles of this vital union that saints have with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every believer is one with the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was Paul that told us in his
epistles of these two representatives. There's two men that represent
the entire human race. The first man, he tells us, is
of the earth, earthy. That's Adam. God formed him of
the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils, and he became
a living soul. He was earthy of the earth. But
the second man, two men, one's earthy, the other one is heaven. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. Two men, Adam and Christ. The first Adam and the second
Adam. Not a third Adam. Just two Adams. Our first representative and
our second representative. In Adam the first, all of us
die. In the second Adam, all shall
be made alive. Paul tells us this in Romans
chapter 5, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation. Even so, By the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. And listen to this, by one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. Even so, by the obedience
of one, shall many be made righteous. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, not that holy image that was in Adam before he fell,
But we bear the image of fallen Adam, that image of God that
was mired. We have borne that image. We
see it in ourselves, don't we? We feel it in ourselves. Sin,
condemnation, and soon to be death. We have borne the image
of the earth. We shall also bear the image
of the heaven. What's that? The image of Christ.
When He shall appear, we shall be like Him. It's begun in us
now. We're being confirmed to the
image of God's Son. Righteousness, holiness, peace,
life eternal, the image of this heavenly. Paul teaches this year
the union between Christ and His church. And look here what
He says in chapter 1 and verses 22 and verse 23. The Lord Jesus
refuses here even to call Himself complete and full without His
people, without His church. Look what He said in verse 22.
He's put all things under His feet, and God has given Him to
be the head over all things to His church, which is His body. the fullness of Him that filleth
all in all." Union with Christ. We're one with Him. He's the
head and we're the body. He is our peace who hath made
both one. He is our peace who hath made
both one. The union we have with Christ
means this, that whatever He is in His glorious person, He
is to us. Is He the Prince of Peace? Is
He Peace Himself? Then He's our peace, because
we're one with Him. And the other place is Paul says
this, He is our life. He gives us life, yes, but He
is our life. When Christ who is our life shall
appear. He is our hope. Christ in us
is the hope of glory. He gives us hope. We have the
grace of hope within us. But Christ is our hope. His person
is our hope. He's seated in heaven. He's already
risen and went through that veil that divides this universe from
heaven. And Christ seated there on the
right hand of God is the believer's hope. Is He there? Then our hope
will be realized because He's our hope. Christ is our wisdom. Let that soak in the next time
you're so confused you can't think of a whole sentence and
retain it. He is our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. There's
three things that Paul says in these verses here concerning
peace. Here in verse 14, he says Christ is our peace. And there
in verse 15 and verse 16, he tells us that Christ made peace. having made peace through the
blood of His cross. And look in verse 19, he says
that He came and preached peace to you. He is our peace. He made peace, and now He says
He's come by His Spirit. He's come by His preachers through
His Word, and He's preached peace to you. That's what Peter said
when he went down into Cornelius. He says, I've come preaching
peace. by Jesus Christ. And we shared that, didn't we? We heard the message. We believed
the message. And we had a degree of this peace
and this rest. We've entered into that rest
that Terence read to us about. His rest. It was preached to
us and we believed it. And all three of these pieces
here that the Apostle Paul mentions is essential and real. But here's the difference, though,
in that peace that we experience in hearing and believing as opposed
to that peace that Christ is for us by our union with Him.
This peace that you have in your heart, that you have by hearing
the gospel, by believing on Him, don't it vary so much? For different
reasons it varies. Some days you're so peaceful,
you're so tranquil, and other days you're so troubled. David
said, the sorrows of death can pass me. The pains of hell got
hold upon me. I found trouble. That's the way
of the believer, ain't it? If you don't find trouble, trouble
is going to find you. I found it, he said. I found
it. And it troubled my heart. Do you ever have a heart trouble?
There's trouble in your soul. We've all been there, haven't
we? Our peace varies. But there is a peace that don't
vary. That's Christ our peace. He don't vary. He don't change. In the presence of God is our
peace. And He's sitting there so tranquil,
undisturbed, unconfused, calm, As He sovereignly rules this
universe and rules His people in grace, and He is our peace. Ain't that so comforting? I don't
have any peace. Yes, you do. In your worst trouble,
you've got peace. A deep peace, a settled peace
that cannot change if Christ is your peace. He is our peace. How could that
be? Because we're one with Him. We're
one with Him. Christ is our peace who hath
made both one. Union with Christ. We're told here something else
too in verse 14 and verse 15, the last portion of verse 14.
Not only do we have union with Christ, but believers have union
one with another. In the last portion of verse
14, Look in verse 4, "...he is our
peace, who hath made both one." And look in verse 15, "...he
has abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of two one
new man." One new man. That's what every believer is
called. United. In union, just one man. I'm looking at everybody here
this evening. And every believer in here is
just one person. I'm looking at every one of you.
And your union makes you just one. One person. We saw over
in chapter 10, if you may remember this, or chapter 1 and verse
10, remember we looked there at the harmony, the consummation
of the ages, when God's purpose is complete, There was going
to be absolute harmony, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of time, He might gather together in one all things in Christ. There's coming a time when this
universe, heaven and earth, is going to be joined. Angels and
glorified saints in absolute harmony. But here we talk about
union. There is harmony and here is
union. Every believer, Jew or Gentile,
is just one person. That's the union that we have.
Do you remember in Revelation chapter 5, that great multitude? Nobody could number them, they
were so great. And the Scripture says the whole multitude was
singing one song. Thou art worthy, singing to the
Lamb, you're worthy, to open the seals, loose those seals
and take the book and look thereon. You were slain, and You redeemed
us to our God out of every kindred, people, and tongue, and nation. And You made us kings and priests. Did you notice how they said
that? They all sang the same song. They all sang the same
thing, and all of them sang. There was no person over here
on the side saying, you've redeemed me by your blood. There was no
little group, some little clique saying, He redeemed us. We don't
know about those folks, but He redeemed us. Everybody, everybody
from all over the world of all ages, males and females, Jews
and Gentiles, they sung as one person because that's what they
are. The church is one person here below, and she's one with
that church that's in heaven. Paul said, as many as you as
have been baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. There is neither
male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond or free, But you are all
one in Christ. Union with Christ. We're all
one with Him and we're one, one with another. One body. I can't harm you without harming
myself. Do you know that? I can't harm you without harming
Christ. We're one. I can't see you afflicted without
being afflicted myself. I can't see you in need without
giving you a helping hand. I can't deny you without denying
myself. I'm one with you. We're one in
Christ Jesus. You all remember this chapter,
1 Corinthians 12. Just let me read some verses
to you to show you the union of every believer one with another.
Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 12, he said, as the body is one
and has many members, and all the members of that one body
being many are one, just one body, so also is Christ. For the body is not one member,
but many. If the foot shall say, because
I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? Of course it's of the body. If
the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the
body, is it therefore not of the body? Of course it's of the
body. If the whole were hearing, where
were the seeing? If the whole were seeing, where
were the smelling? But now hath God set the members,
every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. If they
were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many
members, but one body." One body. You have hands, you have fingers,
you have a head, you have ears, you have feet, you have legs,
but you've got one body. One body. And he said, were the one member
suffer, all the members suffer with him. A one member be honored,
all the members. Rejoice with it. Ain't it easy
to see why Paul would introduce this doctrine of unity of believers
here in our text? Because he's talking about this
division between the Jews and the Gentiles. How they hated
each other. And they did. They despised each
other. They tell us, and it's probably true, that if you were
a Jew going from Jerusalem up into Galilee, you'd take the
long route around before you'd go through Samaria. Peter said,
you know it's not lawful for me, being a Jew, to come in and
sit and eat with you. They got sort of high-minded
about that. They hated the Gentiles. And you know something about
the Gentiles? They couldn't care less. You bunch of arrogant,
self-righteous people. I don't need you as a friend
anyway. Well, here you have these believing Jews and these believing
Gentiles. How are you going to join them
together? How are you going to bring them to love each other?
And appreciate each other? And sit down and rejoice in each
other? And help each other? How are you going to do that?
Well, here's one way you're going to do it. You're going to say,
Brother Gentile and Brother Jew, you're both just one. You're
in one body and you're one with each other. You're brethren.
You're sisters. You're one. That's a good way
to do it, ain't it? You're one in Christ. Paul introduces that. And it
was a mystery. Look over here in chapter 3.
This was a great mystery how these two were going to be brought
together and be one. Look what he says. Look in verse
1. Ephesians 3. For this cause I,
Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given
me, to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. I wrote before in few words.
Wherefore, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in
the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known
unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit." What mystery was that? Look at
this. That the Gentiles, those dead dog Gentiles, should be
fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of His promise
in Christ for the gospel." That was a mystery. Jews and Gentiles,
bond and free, male and female, they're one in Christ. Then the
Lord Jesus often speaks of this Himself. Remember what He said?
There in John 10, other sheep I have which are not of this
foal, they're not of this foal. They're not of the Jewish fold.
They're of the Gentiles. Them I must pray. They'll hear
my voice and there'll be one fold and one shepherd. And he
prayed to his father there in John 17. He said, Father, I'm
not praying for these alone that are here with me, that you've
given me, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word that they all may be one. That's it, ain't it? Unity. As we're one, you're one with
me, and I'm one with you, and they're one with us, and in us,
one. That's a wonderful doctrine,
isn't it? It's a wonderful doctrine. But there's a problem here the
Apostle Paul is going to solve for us. A problem that confronted
especially these Jews. It separated them. Here in verses
14 and verse 15. Here was a wall. He called it
a division, a separation. And what was it? Well, it was
this law. This ceremonial law. This Levitical
priesthood. They had a temple. And they had
sacrifices. They had all these holy days
and they had these Sabbaths that God had given them and required
them to keep. And Paul likens this law to a
wall of petition. It's a fence. I thought as I
was reading this, I thought of our border fence. We're trying
to get a fence put up down on our southern border where the
aliens can't get up past that fence. They build a fence and
they dig in under it and they go over it or something. But
there's a fence. What if we had a fence that was
deep enough underground and high enough in the air, they couldn't
get over it. They couldn't get in here. That's the trouble these
Gentiles and Jews face. There was this wall built up
between them, and this wall was this law. You go into Herod's
temple that he built for the Jew, and they said that there
was this wall right down through the middle of that temple. On
this side of that wall were the Gentiles gathered to worship. On this side of the wall were
the Jews gathered to worship. And you didn't cross that wall.
But there was more walls than that. It was full of walls. They
had a sanctuary, the Jews did, and the common Jew wasn't allowed
to go into that sanctuary. If you ever see a model of the
temple, the model where they kill the sacrifices, they had
it enclosed. And in that enclosure they had
the altar, the brazen altar, they'd burn their sacrifices
on. And had the big lava that they washed in. The common people
weren't allowed in there. Just the Levite that did that
service. Then they had a sanctuary and there was a divider there.
Only the priest went in that sanctuary. And he lit the candles
and he put the showbread on the tables. Then they had another
wall. Remember the veil? Nobody could
go in there but the high priest once every year. So they had
all these walls. How was this wall going to be
moved? It was a source of enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles.
The Gentiles hated it, and they hated the Jews because of it.
And I can understand that, can't you? If you'd have been back
in the Old Testament, and you'd saw those Jews worship Him, and
we're the only ones in this world that can approach Him to God.
We're the only ones in this world that has His Word and His priesthood
and His sacrifice. We're the only ones in this world
that He's promised redemption to. You fellows over there are
nothing. Keep away from us. What would have been your attitude?
And God told them. God told them about this law.
You better see that you keep it. When He gave it to Moses,
He said, You better build everything just like I told you to build
it. And then Moses came down from the mountain and he gave
them those laws, the priesthood and the ceremonies and the holy
days. He says, you better keep every one of them. You don't
do it at your own peril. They had to keep it. They had
to keep it. But it was a source of enmity. That's strange how God could
give a nation something and then turn around and call it a source
of enmity. But it was. It was. But Paul says, you're
the Lord Jesus tore down this wall. I love that. One of my
favorite presidents. I remember when he said, Gorbachev
tore down this wall. Remember that? Tore down this
wall. That's what our Master did. That's what he did. He tore down this wall that separated
the Jews from the Gentiles. Tore it down. How did he do that? Well, he tells us here in verse
15. Here's the way he did it. having abolished in His flesh
the enmity." He abolished it. That word abolished means to
render useless, to make void or not, to put an end to. Now this law, one thing about
the law, two things about the law, and this is so important
to remember this. This is not an issue much with
us today. But if you had been in this day
in the New Testament, this was a very critical issue. What are
we going to do about this law? How are we going to be one with
the Gentiles and enter into fellowship with them while God has commanded
us to keep this law? And the Gentiles have to stay
away. What are we going to do about
this law? Well, here Paul said, Jesus Christ abolished it in
His flesh. See, they had to keep that law.
But it was only for a time. One thing the Jews could not
understand, that this law had an end. It brought them under
awful bondage to keep all these ceremonies and feast days. But
it was just for a time. Christ was coming. Christ was
coming. And when He came, He abolished
it. He put an end to it. He made
it void. The second thing about the law
is this, not only was it given for a time, but it was only pictures. It was only times. It was only
shadows. That's what it served for. The
thousands of those priests that served from Aaron to Christ's
day, all of those priests together represented one priest. It was
just a picture of one priest. All the gallons of blood upon
the Jewish altar All those millions of gallons of blood, disrepresented
to blood, it was a picture of the blood of God's Son. Those
holy garments that the priests wore, that was a picture of Christ's
obedience and His righteousness. The Sabbath days that the Jews
were commanded to keep, that was just a type of the rest that
Christ entered into and we entered into by hand. You look yonder
on Calvary's tree. And you'll see the full fill
of every picture, every type, and every shadow. There he hangs. There he hangs. Wouldn't you
much more, much better, wouldn't it be much better, and wouldn't
you rather have the person rather than the picture? You want the
shadow or you want the substance? It's the substance, don't you?
That's what Christ did. That's what Christ did. Abolished. Paul called the law this. And
boy, the Jews, they could not understand this. And they thought,
no doubt, he's blaspheming. But Paul said this, How turn
ye again to the weak and beggarly elements? How dare him say that
about the ceremony law? Weak and beggarly? God commanded
us to keep that. Yes, He did for a time. But now
it's useless. Christ put an end to it. He's
the end of the law. He abolished it. He fulfilled
it. He's the end. Every high priest standeth daily,
ministering, and often off time. A sacrifice that can never take
away sin. How dare him say that? How dare
him say that these sacrifices can never take away sin? Paul
said they can't do it. But this man, this man, he offered
one sacrifice for sin. Forever. Forever. Paul had no trouble. counting
the ceremonial law done when he came to know Christ and Him
crucified. And if these Jews were having
difficulty forsaking this source of enmity, this law, they had
only to realize that it was their schoolmaster to bring them to
Christ. But after Christ has come, They're
no longer under the schoolmaster. They're not obligated to that
schoolmaster anymore. See that? That's how the Jews
could let go of this ceremonial law. When they saw it fulfilled
and abolished in Christ. Christ is my peace. Christ is
my salvation. Christ is my priest. Christ is
my sacrifice. Christ is my offering. Christ
is my access, and since He is that to me, it doesn't matter
if that Gentile believes of Him as I do, that He's one with me. He's my brother. And if those
Gentiles were ever tempted to go back under this law, this
source of enmity, As their righteousness and their acceptance with God,
they only had to remember this, that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. You both must be saved the same
way. There's peace in one person.
There's salvation in one person. There's union in one person.
And that's Jesus Christ the Lord. this redeeming Christ. He's tore
down every wall between God and the believer. And He's tore down
every wall between believer and believer. And brothers and sisters,
I don't want to go into the construction business, do you? I'm not out
for building up any walls. You find a brother or sister
in Christ, don't you dare build any walls between you and them.
Because Christ will tear it down. We had a couple come here. You
remember them. I think of them often. Such a
sad, sad case. His wife and three sons. And
he left here because we weren't Baptists. Remember that? Build up a wall. One lady told
me one time, she said, I've never come to your church. I said,
why not? She said, you don't have an altar. You know what I asked her? What
thank ye of Christ? Presbyterians with their covenant
theology, what is that? Larry, it's a wall. It's a wall. There is no walls, brothers and
sisters. This big wall that kept the Jews
and the Gentiles from becoming one and united and fellowshipping
and loving each other, that wall has been abolished. It has been
torn down by Jesus Christ. And now you and me and every
other child of God in this world are one. There is nothing between
us. There is no system between us. There's no orders, no magistrates,
no education, no age, no sex. Nothing is between you and other
believers. You're one. You're one. You see why Paul brought this
union here with the Jews and the Gentiles? He goes on now in verse 16, and
I'll close with this. Here he goes beyond all nationalities. Boy, this is an amazing thing
that he does here. Here he says, I don't care if
you're a Jew or you're a Gentile. I don't care what religion you
have. I don't care what God you worship, what law you profess
to obey. I don't care if you are religious
or irreligious, moral or immoral. This one thing, he said, we all
had in common. We not only have this union with
Christ and union with one another, we have this union in something
else too. We're all sinners. See what he
says there in verse 16? And that he might reconcile both
unto God. The Jew with his law, he needed
to be reconciled. The immoral Gentile that was
far off, he needed to be reconciled. Yes, by nature and by deed and
practice, there was no difference. They were all sinners in need
of being reconciled to God. Paul said, we proved before,
both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all under sin. It don't matter what nationality
a man is. It don't matter what religion
that he professes. It don't matter what creed that
he acknowledges. There's one thing he has in common
with everybody else. He's a sinner. I'm an American. Yes, and you're
a sinner. I'm a Chinese. I'm an Iraqi. Yes, and you're a sinner. I'm
a preacher. I'm a cleric. I'm a poet. Yes,
and we're sinners. We're all sinners. And apart
from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to a devil's
hell under the awful wrath of God. Ain't that the truth? There's no such thing anymore,
brothers and sisters, as nationalities. I wouldn't live in another country
If they gave me the choice and a lot of money to do so. I love
this country. We call it our country. But that
means nothing, does it? That means nothing. I'm a sinner
and you're a sinner. You may be young and sheltered.
You may be old and feeble, but you're a sinner. And you must
be reconciled to God. You may be white. You may be
black. You may be yellow. You may be red. There's not a
harsh difference in any of us. We all have this in common. We're
sinners. We're sinners. And Jesus Christ
reconciles sinners. And now there's no more Jew and
no more Gentiles, no more Americans, no more Russians, no more Mexicans,
no more Europeans. We are one in Christ. Ain't that a wonderful truth? Matt said back in the dining
hall something to the effect that we all ought to go visit
in one another more often. Go visit in the saints of God.
And you know why? Because there's such sweet oneness
with the same. The same Father, the same Heavenly
Brother, the same Gospel, the same Spirit. That's why we love
the saints, no matter where they are, we love them. We're one
in Christ. Let's pray.