Let us open our Bibles tonight
to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, and tonight
we will look at verses 11 through 17. Wherefore, remember that you
being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, you are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. That
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ
Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain 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, and came and preached peace to you,
which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." We looked a
couple of weeks ago at the lost condition of all men as we come
into this world. as described by the Apostle Paul
in verses one through seven. And I mentioned the little word
we, W-E, in verse three, among whom also we all had our conversation. Paul, a Jew by birth, writing
to this church that was mainly made up of Gentile believers,
had said some hard things about all of us as we come into this
world, dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the
course of this world, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now, to
make sure that these believers recognize Paul wasn't just saying
that that was true of Gentiles, those who were not Jews by birth,
but it was also true of us Jews. We, he includes himself along
with the other Jews, among whom also we all had our conversation,
the way we lived in times past in the lust of our flesh. It is God's grace that saves
sinners through faith in the Lord Jesus. And I want you to
notice the apostle thus far has mentioned both mercy and grace. Mercy in verse 4, but God who
is rich in mercy. And then of course in verse 8,
for by grace are you saved through faith. In Psalm 103, in verse
8, the psalmist said, the Lord is merciful and gracious. Mercy and grace. Do you know
how to distinguish the two? Do you know how to define the
two, the difference between mercy and grace? Everyone who is saved,
we experience the mercy of God, but we also experience the grace
of God. Is there a difference? Yes, there
is. Yes, there is. Now, I believe that both mercy
and grace flow from the love of God. But I like to remember
it like this. Mercy, mercy is God not giving
me what I deserve because of my sins. That's His mercy. If He gives me what I deserve,
because of my sins, then I will be eternally separated from God
in hell. Grace is God giving me what I
don't deserve, and that is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. The word grace, I heard this
years ago and it stayed with me, but G, God. our riches, A, at C, Christ,
E, expense. God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what grace is. God giving
us eternal life, that which we do not deserve, but which he
merited for us by his mediation by His work, His sacrifice, and
His righteousness. In the verses that we are looking
at tonight, these verses which I've just read, Paul's objective,
what is his objective here in these few verses? Well, I believe
it is to extol the grace of God and the salvation of these Gentiles. To extol the grace of God. in
the salvation of these Gentiles. Now first, in verses 11 and 12,
remember your previous condition. Remember your previous condition. Wherefore, remember that you
being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh. Now this verse
made me think of a passage in Isaiah chapter 51. Now, as I
said, Paul is directing these words
to Gentile believers, but here in Isaiah 51, verses 1 and 2,
the prophet speaks to the nation of Israel, to Jews, and God tells
them to remember. Remember where you came from.
Notice that here in Isaiah 51, verses 1 and 2. Hearken to me, you that follow
after righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look unto the
rock whence you are hewn. In other words, that rock out
of which God took you. Look at that rock. And look at
the hole, the hole of the pit whence you are digged. And of
course, he has reference here to their their father and their
mother, the nation of Israel, Abraham and Sarah. Look unto
Abraham your father. What was Abraham? Abraham was
an idolater along with his family. They were idolaters. And God
in pure sovereign grace spoke to Abraham and said, get thee
out from thy kinsmen into a place that I will show thee. There
were hundreds, probably thousands of people who lived where Abraham
lived in Ur of the Chaldees and God singled him out and said,
get thee out. God chose Abraham. This is what
he said, look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bear
you. Now notice, for I called him
alone. I called him, I passed over others. And every child of God in this
building tonight, you and I know that God passed over others when
he came to us and called us. It's all grace, my friends. So
in this passage here in Isaiah, he's speaking to the nation of
Israel, the Jews, and telling them also to remember
from where they came, You know, men are naturally proud, aren't
we? I remember my friend, Brother
Henry Mahan, saying this, men are proud of face, proud of race,
and proud of grace. And he said, that's the worst
of all, pride of grace. unmerited favor. Now Paul says
to these in our text tonight, wherefore remember that you being
in time past Gentiles. What does he mean by that? He
doesn't mean that now, now that they were saved, they were no
longer Gentiles in the flesh. It doesn't mean that at all.
They were still Gentiles. They were just now saved Gentiles. Remember, therefore, 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 hands. In other words, That mark of
circumcision that God gave to Abraham, that distinguished that
nation from all the other nations. And so they are called the circumcision
and all the other nations are referred to as the uncircumcision. Those are marks in the flesh. A person who was circumcised,
he was marked off as part of the nation of Israel. But these
Gentiles, they were called uncircumcision. They knew nothing of the covenants
and they had no hope. The hope that the nation of Israel
had, what was the hope that they had? Their hope was because God
promised, made a covenant with their father Abraham and renewed
it with Isaac and Jacob, the fathers. In thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed. And that seed is Christ. And
that was their hope. These Gentile nations, they didn't
know anything about that, about the covenants, about the promises,
about the hopes. They were estranged from all
of these things. Remember, Paul says, wherefore
remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, you
are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands. And at that time, now notice
at that time, you were without Christ being aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel. You were not members of the nation
of Israel. You were strangers from those
covenants of promise that God had given unto the fathers. You
had no hope. You had no hope. You may have
had a false hope. You may have had the hope of
a hypocrite. Many people have that hope. Any hope that is not
Christ is a false hope. It's a hope that will deceive
a person and leave a person in ruins and take a person out into
eternity and to hell. A false hope. Christ is the hope
of the word of God. Christ is a hope that God has
given. And you were without God in the
world. Now, before we move on to this
second division, I want to point out these two truths from those
two verses. First of all, The fact, the fact
that there is a circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that's
what he says, that's a fact, there is a circumcision made
in the flesh by hands, that tells us that there's also a spiritual
circumcision that is made without hands. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 2. In Romans chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, the apostle
says, For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Well, he's
a Jew after the flesh, but he's not the praise of God. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
But now notice this, he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. Every true child of God
is circumcised in the heart, circumcised without hand, circumcised
by the Spirit when a person is born again. Circumcision means,
of course, cutting away. And in the new birth, God removes,
takes away that old heart of stone and replaces it with a
heart of flesh upon which He writes His law. Now, how, I just
want to bring this out, how are those who are circumcised in
the heart identified. How do I know tonight? How do
you know? Have I been circumcised in my
heart? Have I? Look with me in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 3. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and that circumcision that is inward, made without hands, the
work of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth, How do we know
if we've been circumcised in our heart? Well, look here at
what Paul says in Philippians 3 and verse 3. For we are the
circumcision, and here's three marks. We are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit. We don't have a bunch of rituals
and ceremonies Lighting of candles and parading, you know, holding
up pictures and crosses. We don't try to worship God like
that. That's all carnal, fleshly. We worship God in the spirit.
When we meet here, just like we are tonight, and just a handful
of us, we worship God in spirit. We sing His praises. We read
His word. We call upon His name. We worship
God in spirit. He is the one we come here to
worship. We don't call attention to one
another and brag on each other and lift each other up. We thank
God for one another, absolutely. But our purpose is here to worship
God. And our Lord said they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So that's the first
mark of the circumcision. We worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ, don't we?
In what He's done for us. We rejoice in the fact that He
has purchased our redemption. that He was hanging upon that
tree, bleeding and suffering and dying to redeem us from all
iniquity. We rejoice in Christ. And the
third thing, the third mark is we have no confidence in the
flesh. We're not trusting in our decision. We're not trusting
in our praying the sinner's prayer or walking down a church aisle
or anything else. Our confidence is in Christ. He took our sins in his own body
on the tree. And he carried them with him
into the tomb. And when he came out, he left
them there. And tonight, we are accepted
in the beloved. We rejoice in Christ, have no
confidence in the flesh. Now I said I wanted to show you
two things. Here's the second thing back in our text. To be
without Christ is to be without God. Notice that in verse 12. 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. You see, they're synonymous.
To be without Christ is to be without God. This is life eternal,
to know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. He is the way, He is the only
way to the Father. To know God as our Father, we
must know His Son. And His Son, the Lord Jesus said
this, no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth
any man the Father, save the Son, and he that is the Father,
to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him. You see, salvation is a
revelation, isn't it? When our Lord said, Whom do men
say that I the Son of Man am? And you know, they began to say,
well, some say you're the John the Baptist, some say you're
Jeremiah. But whom do you say that I am? Peter said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. Flesh and blood did not reveal
this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. All right,
notice the second thing. So remember, Your past condition,
now recognize your present position in these last few verses, 13
through 17. And I want you to look at these
first two words, but now, but now. Above, after declaring our
awful condition by nature, we read, but God, but God. Here we were, dead in trespasses
and sins, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, and there we were going along. And if God
had left us, we would have continued going along until we fell into
hell. But God God had another purpose
for you and for me if we know Him tonight. 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. There
it is, but God, but now in this verse it's but now, but now,
but now. What a change is now true. Though
they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
but now they were openly in Him by regeneration, by being called,
by hearing the gospel and God calling them and saving them.
But now, number one, but now you were far off. But now you're
made nigh by the blood of Christ. When we read that they were far
off, we're not talking about miles. We're not talking about
distance. God is everywhere. God is omnipresent. Oh, but we were far off. We were
far off from God. Every lost man, by nature, far
off from God. Scott Richardson said so one
time. He said, well, someone asked
him, how far are they? How far off are we from God? So far we couldn't find our way
back. That's how far we were. But God. But now, we were far off from
the knowledge of God. Most of us knew there was a God.
We confess that. The devils believe there's a
God and they tremble. But we were far off from the
knowledge of God. We didn't recognize how holy
God is and what God requires. And to be right with God, what
it's going to take? It's going to take the work of
His Son on our behalf. We were far off from righteousness.
We had righteousness that we produced, maybe, which are nothing
other than filthy rags. But we're far off from righteousness.
Far off from the knowledge of God. Far off from fellowship
with God. We didn't have any communion
with God, didn't want any. But now, but now, but now in
Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, or may die. And how were we made not by the
blood of Jesus Christ. Second, You were enmity with
the Jews, but now you are one new man. Verses 14 through 16. You see, there was an enmity
between the Jews and all the Gentile nations. And it was on
both sides. The Jews hated the Gentiles and
the Gentiles hated the Jews. It was a mutual hatred toward
one another. I looked up that word enmity
and I found out this definition. Let me see if I can find it now
in my notes. It was less than friendship. It was actually inbred hatred,
enmity. But now, they are made one new
man. Notice that in verse 14. For he is our peace who hath
made both, both Jew and Gentile one. Broken down the middle wall
of partition between us. Now what was that middle wall
of partition? It was that law. that God had
given at Sinai that kept the Jews separate, kept them a distinct
nation until the promised seed came. And that law, because it
required the Jews to do certain things and not to do certain
things, and it just produced an enmity between the Jews and
the Gentiles. It kept the Jews a separate nation,
the law did. It's called a middle wall of
partition that existed between them and all others. Here it
is, the dictionary defines enmity as the opposite of friendship
and it differs from displeasure in denoting a fixed or rooted
hatred. So it's more than just displeasure
with someone else. It's a fixed or rooted hatred. And that existed between the
Jew and the Gentile. But now, both are made one, one
new man. Now listen, this new man here
is not the new man in chapter four. Look in Ephesians four
and verse 24. and that you put on the new man.
The new man here in Ephesians 4 is that new nature that we're
given, that every believer, every child of God is given. But this
new man, back here in our text tonight, what is this? It is
the body of Christ, the mystical body of Christ. Christ is the
head. And we are all, all believers,
both Jew, if you were a Jew and God saved you, if you were a
Gentile and God saved you, both, we were all baptized into one
body. Made members of one body. Christ
doesn't have two bodies, he has one. One mystical body of which
he is the head. Look in 1 Corinthians 12, just
a moment. 1 Corinthians 12 and verses 12
and 13. The apostle said, for as the body
is one, that is the human body, We've got a lot of members, don't
we? We've got a lot of members in this body, but the body's
one. As the body is one, hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many,
are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
spirit. So you were enmity with the Jews,
but now you are one new man. You say, well, how was that enmity
destroyed? How was that hatred between these
two, between the Jews, and how was that destroyed? By the death
of Christ. Notice what the scripture says.
having abolished in his flesh, verse 15, the enmity, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain 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. In Colossians 2, it says, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and took
it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. That is, those
handwritings, that law that separated and caused the enmity. Well,
this is your condition now. Both Jew and Gentile are made
one in Christ. But now, and the third thing,
You were unreconciled to God, but now you have heard and believed
the message of peace. Verse 17. And came and preached peace to
you. That is Christ did, not him personally. Christ did not personally preach
to the Gentiles. He was a minister to the circumcision. But through his apostles, after
his resurrection, remember he commanded his apostles to go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Those who believe the gospel,
the message of peace, you and I, we have peace in two ways.
Number one, we have peace with God. Romans 5 and verse 1. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. We also join God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom now we have received the reconciliation. We have peace with God. But a
second way that we have peace, we have the fruit of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit lives in us. And the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace. And by the grace of God, when
a person is saved, we become peaceable. We have peace with
God and we become peaceable. We want to live in peace as much
as possible, Paul said. Live in peace with all men. I heard this story years ago
about a rough old coal miner in the Appalachians. He was known
in that part of the country far and wide because of his wild
living, his drinking, dancing, and fighting. The Lord saved
him, and his old friend said, he won't last a week. He won't
last a week. They even took bets, took wagers
on how long he'd hold out. Saturday came, and instead of
going where he usually did to the dives and the place of drinking
and fighting. He was a fighter. He loved to
fight. Instead of going there, he was in a prayer meeting, down
on his knees, crying out to God. After several weeks, and he continued
on his way, those men down in the mine, they
began to play jokes or pranks, pull them on him. They just knew
somehow they would provoke him to fight him. They couldn't provoke
him. And one day, and he was a coal
miner, as I said, he, the way I heard this, at least those,
those bins, I think you call them, buggies that they, you
know, mine for the coal and put the coal in the bin and push
it out. on rails that somehow or another,
here he comes pushing his out and they put something on the
rail and his buggy turns over and all this coal just spills
out. And they just have a good time
laughing, laughing. And he picked up his bin and
the way I heard the story, his knuckles got as wide as they
could be. Face turned red. They just knew
this time we've got him. And with tears running down his
eyes, he began to sing, Jesus is the sweetest name I know.
And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason
why I love him so. And instead of him being broken,
some of his adversaries were broken. God had changed him. The grace of God had changed
him from a fighter to a peaceable person. We have peace with God and we
have peace in our hearts tonight, don't we? And we want to live
in peace. with everyone else. I pray the
Lord would bless the word to all of us here tonight. We'll
sing a hymn and then we will be dismissed.