Let's begin reading in verse
11. Last week, in the afternoon service,
we looked a little at verses 11 and 12, and I want to begin
reading there again this morning. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11. Wherefore remember that ye, being
in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision,
by those, or by that which is called a circumcision, in the
flesh made by hands, that at that time you 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, You
who sometimes were afar off are made near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath
made both one, Jew and Gentile, and hath broken down the middle
wall of petition that was 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, and so make him 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 far off, and to
them that were nigh. For through him we both, Jew
and Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now,
therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints, and of the household of God. And ye are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together grows into an unholy temple in the Lord. in
whom ye also are builted together for an inhabitation of God."
An inhabitation of God. An inhabitation of God. Ain't
that a wonderful statement? I will dwell in them, and I will
be their God. A habitation of God. How can
God dwell in us? By His Spirit. By the Spirit
of His Son. Ye who were aforeoff are made
now. That is the train of thought
that I have this morning, and I hope to relate some of it to
you. You who were aforeoff, that was our position in time past. But now, you are made now in
Christ. There's two things the Apostle
Paul is aiming at here in this epistle. There's two things that
he's been doing and is doing here in the first chapter and
in the second chapter. And these two things are vitally
linked together. You remember the first one is
here in chapter 1 in verse 16 and through verse 18. Here's
the thing that he done. And when we looked at this, I
could not stress this enough, the importance of what the Apostle
Paul was doing for these people and encouraging them to do for
themselves. He says here in verse 16, I cease
not to give thanks for you and to make mention of you in my
prayers. And here is his request, that
the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. How important
is that? Our prayer, our earnest prayer,
brothers and sisters, should always be, open my eyes. Lord, give me understanding. Let me see You. Let me see my
hope. Let me see my position in Christ. Let me really see. You know the
difference. We know the difference. And just
getting hold of something with our minds, we call it the mental
ascent, as opposed to God opening our hearts to really see. And
that's what Paul is praying for, this people, that the Lord may
open their understandings to really see, to really know. How
essential is that? But the second thing that he's
doing, especially here in this second chapter, He was laboring
in his writings here to bring them to a deeper realization
of what their state was, their condition was in time past. What they were when they were
lost, when they were unconverted. To look back upon that and have
a fuller realization of it. That's what you and I should
do. Don't look back to despair. Don't look back to dwell there,
but look back with a greater realization. Look where I was. We see more about it now than
we did when we were there in retrospect. The Apostle Paul
was doing that in order to bring them to this greater realization
of what it meant to now be saved. That's what he's doing. He's
contrasting the negative with the positive. The Apostle Paul
was a man who always did that. Somebody said, well, I don't
like negative preaching. Well, we shouldn't be so negative. I don't like a negative attitude.
But if you and I want to see the positive, there's times when
we have to stress the negative. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is doing. He begins here in the second chapter, and you and I
saw it. Verses 1 through verse 3, remember how negative that
was? You were dead in trespasses and
sins. You walked according to the course
of this world. The devil was in your heart,
and you didn't mind that at all. He was your master, and you followed
him. And he goes on and on with that negative, and he doesn't
get positive until he comes here to verse 4 and says, But God,
who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. He compares the negative with
the positive. And then he goes on in verse
11 and verse 12. We looked at this last week.
And he does the very same thing again. Brother Larry, you've
got to turn off that fan for me. It just kicked on, brother.
In verse 11 and verse 12, he was negative again. You were
Gentiles in the flesh. And Paul said, look at your condition.
You were without Christ. You were aliens. You were foreigners
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants
of promise, without God and without hope in this world. And then
he gets into the positive, verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus,
you who sometimes were for all are made not. That's what he's
doing. Contrasting these two things. Where we were, what we
were, and where are we now. What are we now? In time past,
what were we? He said you were without Christ.
But where are you now? We're in Christ. In time past,
He said you were far off, but where are you now? Now you're
near, near to God. In time past, you were aliens,
and I read to you down in verse 19, now you're fellow citizens.
In verse 12, you were without God. Verse 18, now you have access
to the Father. Verse 12, you were strangers,
but what about now? Now you're the household of God.
You're God's family. And you and I, as we consider
this contrast, we can immediately see here what the Apostle Paul
is teaching us. What it means to be lost as opposed
to what it means to be saved. What a contrast it is. What a
sharp contrast it is. What's the comparison between
the Christian and the non-Christian? What's the comparison in being
in Christ and being out of Christ? There's no comparison. The contrast
is so sharp, you can't compare the two positions. One fellow
said this, He said there's no gray areas between the Christian
and the non-Christian. There's no gray areas in what
it means to be in Christ as opposed to what it means to be out of
Christ. In verse 13, the Apostle Paul
makes this contrast so sharp. Look what he says again. In Jesus
Christ, you are near. Outside Christ, you are for all. And what determines the difference?
In Christ. That's His favorite word as we've
looked at it here in these first two chapters. In Christ. And
that's the issue. It always goes back to this point.
In Christ. This is what it means to be a
Christian. In Christ. And it's because we're
in Christ that He says here that you're near. You're near. But
what's it to be outside of Christ? It's to be far off. What is to
be outside of Christ? It's to be without God. And you
know there's no intermediate area here. Did you notice that?
It's either far off or it's near. There's no intermediate area.
There's no such thing, brothers and sisters, of being outside
Christ and being a Christian. There's no such thing as being
outside Christ and being near to God. See the contrast? See the difference? There's no
comparison. In Christ, you're near. Outside
Christ, you're far off. In Christ, you're in the family
of God. Outside Christ, you're a stranger,
you're an alien. This world likes to think of
Christianity as being in a gray area of some kind. That's what
they like to think. You can liken this religious
world to lawyers. When lawyers, and lawyers are
always the one that makes laws over in our state house. And
when lawyers write laws, they write these gray areas. And they
do that so they can turn around and argue and make money in doing
it. If this gray area is black, Or
if this gray area is white. And you got the ones on one side
and they make a lot of money arguing that this gray area is
black. Then you got them on the other side that says this gray
area is white. Christianity is not that way.
There is no gray areas. In Christ, there's all white. Outside of Christ, it's all black. And you know, it's not that we
start off and we're all black, and then we progress to this
gray area, and black turns gray, and then after a while we progress
into this white area where the gray turns white. It's not like
that at all. The contrast is so sharp that
outside of Christ it's black. In Christ it's white, and there's
no purgatory in between. There's no intermediate place
between. In Jesus Christ, what's our position? We're saved. We're near to God. We're safe. We're hopeful. Outside the Lord Jesus Christ,
our case is desperate, it's dark, and it's hopeless. And there's
no intermediate place that we can find where it's otherwise. We always make the contrast,
and it's so short. Look over in chapter 5. The Apostle
Paul does the same thing in this chapter. Look here what he says.
Look in verse 8. Look in Ephesians chapter 5,
verse 8. He does the very same thing.
The Apostle John does this often in his little epistles. Ye were
sometimes, see that? You were sometimes in the past.
You were darkness. But now are you light in the
Lord. What is it to be without Christ?
It's to be darkness. What is it to be in Christ? It's
to be light. From darkness, to light, and
there's no room for anything in between. That's how sharp
this contrast is. Paul makes this distinction again,
and let me quote it to you in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. He said,
What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? Why, none. None. What communion hath light
with darkness, and what accord Has Christ with the devil? And
what agreement has the temple of God with idols? None. There's no gray areas there.
And that's what he's proven and setting before us here as to
what it means to be in Christ and what it means to be outside
Christ. What it means to be a Christian and what it means not to be a
Christian. What it means to be a believer and what it means
to be a non-believer. And the contrast is sharp. It's so sharp that there's no
intermediate between those two contrasts. Now, why does Paul
give this contrast? For the reason I said at the
beginning, to bring us as believers, as Christians, to a deeper realization
of our sad and fearful condition in time past outside Christ. How far off that we were. What
a great distance from God and hope and salvation. And then
also to bring us to a deeper realization of our present condition. Where are we now? Where's the
believer now? He's in Christ, and he's near
to the heart of God. Near to the heart of God. And
there's another reason that he does this, and let me say this.
It's somewhat scattering, but let me say this. This is another
reason why he shows this contrast. The church is to be evangelical. The church is to preach the gospel
to this world. Well, to take the gospel not
only to the church, but the church is to take the gospel to the
world. Go ye unto all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. And what do we do When we preach
the gospel to this world, we set forth this contrast. Do we
not? What is it to preach the gospel
but set forth this contrast? There is always the negative
and always the positive in preaching the gospel. When the Lord said,
Go ye and preach the gospel to every creature, immediately He
makes this statement, He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved. That's the positive aspect of
it. Here's the negative. He that believeth not shall be
damned. What do we do when we take the
gospel to the world? We set forth salvation and we
set forth damnation. We set forth what it is to be
justified. We set forth what it is to be
condemned. We contrast these two positions. Sometimes the church is fearful
about taking the gospel, and the reason it is is because we
make this contrast. This is why you don't want to
confront your neighbors sometimes. This is why you don't want to
confront your co-workers sometimes. It's because you know that there's
this contrast that you must set forth. And very seldom do you
talk to a lawspeople that you don't get into this area of contrast. Now, ain't that so? And don't
that make us apprehensive sometimes about talking to this world?
What's wrong with this world? What's wrong with this lost,
dead, dumb world? And it's this, it doesn't realize
that it's supposed to be afraid. They think, well, it's the devil
making me doubt. I shouldn't fear. And there they
go, asleep, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And when
you point out this contrast as what it is to be saved, as opposed
to what it is to be lost, it makes them fearful, and they
don't want to hear that. But what do we do? We got the
labor on. We got the labor on, showing
this contrast. This world stops its ears to
the gospel, and it goes on saying, peace, peace. But the church
has to labor on. And doing what? Showing this
clear distinction, this contrast between salvation that's of the
Lord and damnation. And here's the distinction. Listen
to this. The Lord Jesus always said it forth. He that believeth
on Him, he that believeth on the Son, is not condemned. He's
free. He has life eternal. Judgment
is passed for him. He'll never be condemned. He
is not condemned. But here is the contrast. But
he that believeth not is condemned already. He's already lost. He's already been judged. The
wrath of God is upon him. There's the contrast. And the
church is to labor on by the Spirit of our Sovereign Lord. to help show the lost and to
bring them to this understanding of this awful contrast between
what it is to be saved and what it is to be lost. Here's our
problem that we face with in preaching the gospel to the world.
It's not that we don't have a great message. We have a great message. We have the only message. We
know a physician. We have a great physician that
we speak of. Our problem is we don't find
any sick folks. And that's the contrast. Everybody
wants to go to the doctor just to get a checkup to have the
doctor say, you're in good health. But we have no such physician.
We have a physician that's giving himself a great name, and the
name that he's getting for himself is that he's come to heal the
sick. But we can't find any sick folks.
That's the problem we're facing. We know one who has water of
life in his possession, but we can't find any thirsty folks.
That's the difficulty we have. We know one who is the resurrection
and the life, but the problem that we face is we find nobody
who is dead in trespasses and in sin. What do we do? We labor on. We labor on by God's
help, confronting the world. Drawing this contrast, this sharp
distinction between what it is to be saved and what it is to
be lost. And we set forth this great gulf
that's between the two. What is the church is trying
to do in our day? And we know it's true. And it's
so hurtful and dangerous. The church is trying to tell
the world there's no difference. There's no difference in the
church and there's no difference in the world. There's no difference
in the way that God looks upon the unbeliever as the way He
looks upon the believer. There's no difference. Jesus
died for you, and God loves you, and you're just as well off as
the church is. But that's not so, is it? According
to Paul's writings here, according to his teachings, he says you're
in Christ. But you've not always been in
Christ. You were without Christ. And he says, here's this awful
distinction. When you were outside of Christ, you were without God.
The wrath of God was upon you. He was not your friend. You were
His enemy. You were hopeless and helplessly
lost. But now you're in Christ, and you're brought near to the
heart of God. Now you have hope. There is a
contrast. Let me ask you this question
this morning. Have you ever felt this contrast
in your own soul? Have you ever felt it? Have you
experienced it in your soul? I'm trying to set forth the teaching
of it and the doctrine of it, but have you ever experienced
it? You've experienced what it was
to be without Christ. You felt in your own soul that
you were condemned before God and guilty before Him. And now
you're in Christ. Don't you see a difference? Don't
you see the contrast now as opposed to what you were? You may be a moral person, but
the most moral person in this world outside Jesus Christ is
as bad off as a murderer or a fornicator. Now that's so. The distinction
is so great. You say, Bruce, now you're talking
this morning, and you made this sharp contrast, and you say it's
just being in Christ that makes this distinction. Paul was writing here to these
Ephesians who, for the most part, were probably heathens, many
of them open and profane, maybe most of them. And you can say,
well, now I believe that that kind of people was for all. And
they were without God. But what about these good moral
people? What about people that never
wrongs their neighbor and they raise their children and they
love their families? They cause nobody any problems.
They pay their taxes and they're good people. What about those
people? The distinction is made on this
standard, what it is to be in Christ and what it is to be outside
of Christ. The weakest believer in Christ
is near to the heart of God. The most moral man in all of
this world who is outside of Christ is far off. That's the
contrast, and there's no middle ground. There's no middle ground. See the distinction the Apostle
Paul is drawing. And it's so important for us
to realize this distinction. This world thinks that if there
is such a thing as salvation, that the difference is so small
in being lost and being saved and the distinction between those
two, that just a slight change will make up the difference.
Just exercising a free will or a little morality will make up
the difference. That's what this world thinks.
But the contrast is much sharper than that according to the Apostle
Paul's writings here. The gulf is so wide that a little
morality will not span it. The will of man will not span
it. In Christ you're near. Outside
of Christ you're far off. And what in the world can span
that gulf but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's all. That's all. God and Christ alone. Now Paul goes on here in verse
13, and he tells us what it is to be a Christian. Look at it. This is so important. What is
it to be a Christian? Ye who sometimes were foraught
are made nigh. Ye who sometimes were aforeof
are made nigh." What is it to be a Christian? It means you're
made nigh. You're made nigh to God. That's
what it means to be a Christian. When you and I think of Christianity,
we must never think of it, first and foremost, in the terms of
our character or our conduct or our morals. When you and I
think of the terms of what it means to be a Christian, it always
must be upon this. Near. We're made near. What is that? That's our relationship
with God. When you look at yourself this
morning and want to know first and foremost what it is to be
a Christian, you must think this way. What is my relationship
to God? If you're a Christian, here it
is, you're brought nigh, you're brought nigh to God. Some think
it is probably so. Here in verse 14, verse 13 and
14, when the Apostle Paul says that you're brought near, through
Christ and in Christ you're brought near. And then he goes on to
say there in verse 14, he talks about Christ being our peace.
And he's broken down this middle wall of petition between us. And some think here, and it's
probably so, that when the apostle is talking about us being brought
near, he's alluding to the temple. If you know anything about the
temple that Harry built for the Jews, for them to worship in,
They had a court where the Jews were to come in and they were
to worship. And that's where they had the services of God.
They had the priesthood and offered the sacrifices and so on. And
the Jews gathered in that court. But the Gentiles had a court
that Herod built for them where they were to gather in the temple
and worship. But between these two courts, there was this wall
that was built, this petition. And the Gentiles were not allowed
to come across that petition, that divided wall to the court
of the Jews. And probably the Apostle Paul
is alluding to that here when he says that Jesus Christ has
broken down this middle wall of division between us. And we
that were on the other side of the wall, we that were far off,
are now made nigh. The petition has been torn down. What the Jews did, and let me
tell you this for just a minute, this wall of division that was
torn down, when the Jews worshipped, when they gathered to worship,
they had all of these ceremonies, they had the priesthood, they
had the sacrifices, they had the little bowls of incense,
and by these means, they believed they were brought nigh to God.
And they were. They looked at the priesthood
as he went into the holy place, and they said, he's going in
to represent us before God. They looked at the sacrifices
and said, that's for me. They looked at the sweet incense
as the smoke went up into the nostrils of God, and they said,
I believe, I believe. And this brings them nearer to
God. But they only had the type, see? They only had these things in
shadows and figures. What they had that brought them
nigh, because they believed in those shadows and figures, you
and I have the substance of those things. We have those things
in reality. See, this is not so. They had
a priest, did they not? And that priest represented them
before God. He would go into the holy place
with the sacrifices, and He would sprinkle the blood there upon
the altar, and He would pray for them and represent them before
God. And they saw that priest go in
there, and they knew, there's our representative. God has provided
us a representative. And they were brought near to
God through that priest. But now, you and I have in reality
what they only had in time. And their poor priest was a sinful
man. He was a weak man and a dying
man. But the Scripture tells us that
you and I have a priest who is holy, he's harmless, he's undefiled,
he's separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens,
and because he ever liveth, he has an unchangeable priesthood. And what's the result of that?
He's able to save them to the uttermost who come to God by
Him. If they could draw nigh with
their earthly priest, how much more are we brought nigh with
our heavenly priest, the Son of God in our humanity? These
Jews had this earthly tabernacle. They'd come there in the court
and they could look upon this tabernacle, but this tabernacle
was made with hands. It was a figure for the time
then present, and it figured the heavenly tabernacle, the
heavenly temple. And who's there in that heavenly
temple? Our faithful and merciful high priest. They had this temple
that they could look at, but it was made with hands. That
only represented our tabernacle, which is heaven, which is the
very presence of God Himself. Christ has made us, listen to
this, not only is Christ there in that heavenly temple for us,
He's entered that holy place, but you notice something else
about what Christ has done for us. He not only is our high priest
representing us in that heavenly temple, but by His sacrifice,
He's made us kings and priests. Now we can go into the holiest
of all ourselves. In the very presence of God.
They couldn't do that. They let their priest go in there.
Well now, when our priest represents us there before God, He not only
is there, but He lets us into the Holy Place. He's made unto
us free. These Jews sat in their court,
and they watched the priest as they filled those little bowls
full of coals. And on that hot coals they would
sprinkle this sweet incense, and that drifted up through the
air. And they sat there and watched that. And they knew the sweet
incense of that was going into the nostrils of God. And they
drew near this way. Oh, what does the Scripture say
about our incense? Oh, here's what it says. That
Christ has offered Himself to God a sacrifice for us for a
sweet-smelling savor. He's our incense. And in that
sweet incense, though you find in yourself that you're an awful
sinner, you can draw near to God through this sweet incense. They used to tell us about the
lilies of the valley. Solomon talked about the lilies
of the valley. We know that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he said when the foxes used to hunt the rabbits,
The rabbits would make their way as quick as they could to
those lilies down in the valleys. And those lilies were of such
a strong aroma that the foxes couldn't track them. That's where
we flee to. We smell our awful stink of unrighteousness
and filthy rags, but where do we flee to to be accepted in
that sweet aroma of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? The
wrath of God can't seek us. Sin cannot seek us out. The devil
cannot seek us out. Oh, not there hid away in that
sweet incense in which we draw near to God. And the Jews there
on their side of the court, they had the showbread. Every day
they'd bring this showbread and put it there upon the table.
But there was only a few allowed to eat it. Mostly the priests
ate that showbread. But you know what, brothers and
sisters, we've got bread that we're welcome to eat daily, anytime
you're hungry. Christ said, I'm the bread that
comes down from heaven. A man may eat of this bread and
live forever. You're free to eat it. A man
may eat it. Are you a man? Then eat! Are
you hungry? Then eat! You and I may eat of
this every day, all the time. And listen to this. Not only
has that petition between the Jews and the Gentiles been broken
down, but that veil that kept the common people from the holiest
of all, that's been ramped. That's been torn asunder. And
now the common people can go right into the holiest of all.
The veil is gone. It's not there to stop it. Listen
to what the writer of Hebrews said. Have him therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath made for us through the veil,
that is to say, his flesh." You mean I can come into the holiest
of all, into God's presence? That's how near you are. That's
how near the high priest has brought you. His flesh was ramped
upon Calvary's tree, and the way into God's presence is now
manifest, and we brought near. Therefore, having the high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near." See how near we are,
brothers and sisters? Paul said that wall of petition,
and really we could say everything that stood in our way From God
drawing near to us, and us drawing near to God, has been taken out
of the way. And now, we're made near. How
near are we? Well, look down in verse 18,
what he said. Through Him, we both have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. How close is the relationship
between God and the believer? A father and son. You don't get
any closer than that, do you? He sent the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts. We cry, Father, Father. That's
how close we are. We're heirs of God and joiners
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're awfully close. We're awfully
close. And how did it all happen? Look
in verse 13 again. How were we made near? By the
blood of Christ. What a wonderful statement. There's
a contrast. We are brought near that we're
for all. How were we brought near? By the blood of Christ. That precious old Gospel. We
always come back. We always preach the Atonement
here, don't we? We always talk about the blood
of our Lord Jesus. Old Brother Spurgeon said, he
said, you look at this distance that was between you and God. And it was like a mountain, so
broad at the base and so high, and it stood right between you
and the Eternal God. It was so broad that you couldn't
get around it. It was so high that you couldn't
get over it. And what was it? He said, well,
consider this. He said it was sin. Look what
a mountain of sin that was between you and God. You couldn't see
His face and He couldn't see your face. Your sins have separated
between you and your God. What an awful separation. And
you couldn't get around it and couldn't get over it. And there
was the awful wrath. Spurgeon said that was a mountain
of wrath, like it was ready to fall upon your head. The awful
wrath of God. What was justice demanding? Your
death. God was angry with our sins.
And there was our awful ignorance. Look how ignorant we were. Do
you remember, brother? Do you remember how you went
along in your ignorance, knowing nothing of God's character, knowing
nothing of the nature of Christ as a Savior? How ignorant that
we were. How dumb that we were. It was
like a mountain. The fear, a mountain of fear,
Spurgeon said. We were afraid. That's why we
didn't want to hear about the Lord. We were afraid of Him.
Fear kept us away. This spirit of bondage kept us
away. The Spurgeon said, look again
at that mountain. What's that do you see dripping
on it? One drop and then another. What's that causing it to shake
and dissolve? And then it flees away in a mist. What is that that's touched the
mountain? Well, he said, look again. And
there you see him hanging upon a tree. Blood running from his
head. Blood running from his hands.
Blood running from his side. And it's dissolved the mountain.
The mountain of sin. The mountain of God's wrath.
The mountain of our ignorance. The mountain of enmity. It's gone. It's gone. And now there's nothing between
us and God. We're brought near by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a wonderful thing.
You think of this. It's not our faith. It's not
the greatness of our faith that brings us near. Do you think
your faith is a great faith? Why, no. You look upon your faith
and you pray. You pray like we all pray. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
You may be the weakest believer here this morning, but you're
just as near as the greatest believer. Why? Because it's not
the faith that brings us near. It's His blood that brings us
near. Am I far off when I fall into
unbelief? No, it's not my poor weak faith
that brings me near. It's the blood of our Savior.
It's not knowledge. You can't disqualify these things.
Sure, we won't come if we don't believe. Sure, we can't rejoice
in Him if we don't have knowledge and understanding. But it's not
great, fair knowledge that brings us near. It's the blood of Christ
that brings us near. What if you and I get like poor
old Ed Purvis, and we're sitting in a corner, screaming at the
top of our lungs, dying, with blood running out of our vital
organs? We don't understand anything. If somebody asks you, are you
trusting Christ? You don't know because you're
half out of your head. Does that mean we're not near?
No, brothers and sisters. It's not anything that brings
us near, but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
removed the mountain. The blood of Jesus Christ. And notice how Paul says this
again. He doesn't say, well, we hope that we are. I wish that
we were. We're going to be. He doesn't
say that at all. He's very positive and dogmatic.
He says, we are made now. We are made now. One more point,
then I'll quit. Look how he says it again. Now. I love this. But now. But now. Now, ain't that wonderful? You
know, it's only the Christians who are allowed and commanded
to look at their life in the present tense. A lost man has
to keep looking back. Why? Because something is following
him. Your sin is going to follow you right to the judgment. The
wrath of God is on your trail. But the Christian is always said,
how is it now? Where are you now? What's your
position now? What's your position this morning?
Answer that within your own heart. You say, I'm in Christ. Are you
sure you're in Christ? Yes, Bruce, I'm in Christ. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
wonderful? Oh, you look back upon your life
and you're like the rest of us. There's things there that saddens
you. You're disappointed. I wish this hadn't happened.
We live confessing so much of the past, don't we? But what
does that mean? It means nothing. There is no
past. When the Christian considers
his life, he must forget the past and say, how is it this
morning? How is it with me right now?
I'm in Christ. Well, then you're near. You're
near. And nothing can change that,
brothers and sisters. Nothing can change that at all.
If you're in Christ this morning, right now, then don't that make
you so happy? You look back upon your past
life and you're sorry and you repent of it? You confess it? You say, yesterday as a Christian,
let's just go one step further. What about your Christian past
life? You say, I've been a Christian ten years. Well, what about yesterday? How was your life as a Christian
yesterday? Oh, Bruce, don't ask me. I had a bad day yesterday.
Oh, I confessed it, but I don't want to tell you about it. It
was awful. It was awful. How is it right now? I'm in Christ. Then forget about yesterday.
How is it right now? You're nearer right now. See the importance of viewing
this this way. I look at some of you and I can
tell. I've learned you through the years. Bless you all. I can
tell when you come in. You're all down. You're all down. Boy, that dear brother Glenn,
he's down today. I wonder what's the matter with
him. You know why we don't rejoice
in Christ as we should. You know why? We don't spend any time making
this contrast. There's a way that you and I
can rejoice in the Lord always. If we just remember where we
were and where we are now. And there's nothing that can
change that. That will never change. And you get all sad and
you lose your joy because you don't realize your present position. You are in Christ. What could
be more glorious than that? What could be more glorious than
being near to the heart of God? Nearer, more nearer, I could
not be. In the person of His Son, I am
as near as He. Ain't that wonderful? Oh, if
we left this on our heart this morning, we could go out of here
rejoicing. If we kept this on our hearts
next week, we'd rejoice all week long. Nothing could get us down. It doesn't matter what happens.
It all eventually is in the past. Today is tomorrow's past. But how is it now? I'm in Christ. And I'm near to God. One verse
before we close. I'll close by just reading this.
Look in Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Look in verse
8. Romans chapter 5 and verse 8.
God commendeth His love toward us. Here's the negative. While we
were yet sinners. Here's the positive. The cross
died for us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Right now. Right now. We're justified. And that will
never change. That will never change. If we
were enemies, We were brought near to God through the blood
of Christ. Now that we're brought near, will He ever cast us away? Never. Never. You won't find
any other religion but the Christian religion that gives you such
cause to rejoice continually. May God bless His Word. Let's
pray.