THE MYSTERY GLORIOUSLY REVEALED (Eph 3:2-6)

You saved my soul. I am yours forevermore. I won't be moved of this, I'm sure. You, my God, You saved my soul. When You came for me, building chains, by the end of my living. With grace alone, I will sing for my every gift.

To me, You brought me about. I'm bursting out with songs of hope. One more time. What once was dead is arms of praise. You saved my soul. I am yours forevermore. I won't be moved of this, I'm sure. You, my God, You saved my soul.

We have up here on the screen the dates for a new membership class. We try and do a new member class. If you know someone or if you're someone that is interested in learning what it means to be a part of this covenant body of believers, then we typically do a class every month to help walk through what that is.

And we've traditionally just done one class. And if you've been through the class, which all of you members have been through the class, you know it's like drinking from a fire hose. It's just a lot. And so we've decided to break it into four different weeks.

So we have four steps walking through that class. And the first one will be August 9th. And if you look at the calendar, you'll see it's on a Wednesday night instead of a Sunday. So it'll be at a regular hours, 630 to 730, while everyone's meeting in here.

But we'll meet over at the house starting August 9th. If you know someone that wants to find out more about what it means to be a part of this body of believers, this is where we start. And we'll be walking through what it is about the church, some history about the church, where we're headed.

The next week, Pastor Jeremiah is going to walk them through the statement of faith, what it is that we believe, why do we believe what we believe. And then Brother Keith, the third week, is going to walk them through the church structure, the bylaws, what we look like, what's a distinguishing thing about 12 .5 and how we're structured.

And then finally, the fourth week, I'll walk them through the membership covenant. So be in prayer for that. Pray that God would bring the people that are going to be a part of this body to that class, and they would benefit from that.

And then next we have, coming up this week, we're going to do something special this week. We're going to have a week of prayer. Most of you know that the location that we were headed to fell through.

And so we are looking for a new place to meet. And God has not opened those doors yet. And God uses the means of prayer, doesn't He? He wants His people to come before Him. He's got a plan. He's got a plan, and it's not that our prayer is going to change His plan.

It's our prayers are going to change us in alignment with His plan. And so what we want to do is we want to focus our attention together as a church all week long. And so I'm going to be here, and we're going to open the doors up from 5 p .m. to 8 p .m. Monday through Saturday this week.

And I know that I'm not saying everyone has to be there every night, and you have to be there for all those hours. That's not what that's about. It's so that you have opportunities when you have an open window to come be a part of it.

And so I encourage you as families, as groups of friends, or even individually, kind of commit to a time. Say, okay, I'm going to be there on Tuesday night at 6 o 'clock. I'm going to come, and I'm going to pray, and I'm going to pray specifically.

God, what do you have in store for us? Your will be done on heaven and earth. And we're going to just have an environment where we can focus our affection on that. We're actually going to kind of put a pause on our study on Wednesday night through systematic theology.

And this week we may have a little bit of music. If I can talk this crew into doing a little bit of music with us, we'll come in, we'll sing, and we'll have a really focused time of prayer Wednesday night.

I encourage you to be here. There's something beautiful about God's people gathering and going before him, right? So let's prepare our hearts for that this week and pray that God would mold us and give us wisdom and discernment and what the next step is.

Well, before we jump into our call to worship, we often try and pray for a local church, right? And so this morning we actually have something special. We've prayed for this church numerous times, but now today you guys are actually going to get some faces with some names because we have some guests with us this morning that, by the way, stay for after Koinonia Feast and for the sermon discussion because our brother here, Creston, is going to kind of give us a good picture of what ministry in Pine Bluff has looked like and how we can be praying specifically for them.

So please prepare to be here. You're not going to want to miss that. But Creston and his family, this whole crew right here, this is the whole crew, they are joining us for worship this morning. And they are Christ the Redeemer of Pine Bluff, correct?

Or in Pine Bluff, Christ the Redeemer.

Church.

Church, got it. Christ the Redeemer Church in Pine Bluff. And y 'all are familiar with that name because we've prayed for them many times. But we want to pray for them especially this morning, pray that God will work in their people as they're here.

He's got another brother there that's filling the pulpit and preaching and faithful there. And so let's go to the Lord in prayer and pray that God would work in their midst today. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning and we thank you again.

Father, you bring us together as your people. You allow us the opportunity for community with unity and union with you, Father, with the triune God. So I pray for our brothers and our sisters at Christ the Redeemer Church.

Lord, I pray that you would be with them this morning as their pastor and his family are away from them. God, I pray that you would just allow them to worship you this morning, that in spirit and in truth you would work in their hearts that common means of grace through the singing and the praying and the reading and the preaching, Father.

I pray for the gentleman that's going to be filling the pulpit. I pray that you give him boldness and clarity, Father. I pray that he would rest in you, that he would proclaim the truth boldly, and that you would use that truth to mold the minds and the hearts of your people there.

God, I pray that you would cause this church to flourish in what ways you desire for it to flourish, in maturity and in depth and in a hunger and a love and a fear of you. Father, I pray for Creston and his family.

Lord, I pray that you give them rest as they get to celebrate with us this morning. Father, I pray that you give them renewal. Lord, I thank you for them, and I thank you for their commitment to you and to ministry.

Father, bless them, work in them. Lord, we thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen.

Let's start our worship this morning. Amen. A call to worship comes from Isaiah 25. There's a few verses here, 6 through 9, that we are going to look to to drive our hearts to truth and to God and adoration and worship.

He says,.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples. He will swallow up death forever.

And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth. It will be said on that day, This is the Lord we have waited for him. And all God's people said,.

Amen.

Let's pray a prayer of adoration to that great God who has brought about salvation as he promised. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, be honored in our worship. For you are worthy of all praise. You are worthy of honor.

You are worthy of all glory, Father. And we know that you are the God of salvation. Father, you did not leave us to ourselves. You did not simply cast Adam and Eve out of the garden in a hopeless state without any future grace or redemption.

But you made a plan before you had even created us. Father, thank you. You have provided for us a way of salvation. And we stand in your righteousness now. No righteousness of our own, but the righteousness of Christ for those of us that are in Christ this morning.

And we can worship you in spirit and truth, Father. For you are building us up into a temple. To a household of faith. A place where you mediate with your people. That you dwell with your people. So, Father, I pray that you would be honored in our worship this morning.

In Christ's name, Amen.

Amen, alright. If y 'all would, just sing along with us.

Lift your voices this morning. Amen. We got a reason to be excited this morning.

Amen.

Alone in my sorrow And dead in my sin Lost without hope With no place to be. Your love made a way To let mercy come in. When death was arrested And my life began Ash was redeemed Only beauty remains. My orphaned heart was given a name My mourning grew quiet My feet rose to dance.

When death was arrested And my life began Rejoiced I. Yes, we're free.

Oh, your grace. Oh.

Endless love, Lord, pouring down on us. Father, I'm so grateful. We are so grateful. Lord, we are free. We are truly free. Lord, we praise you for that. Lord, forgive me, Father, where I fail you and fall so short.

For all that you've done and your love that you just pour out upon us. Lord, we love you. We praise you.

In Jesus' name.

We thank you for this time of worship and praise.

Father, may it just be a sweet offering to you, God. As we continue this time of worship and giving and offering, Father, I just ask that you would be honored in what we do. God, not a selfish desire of giving or boastful, God, forgive me, Father, that all things belong to you.

That you are creator God of the universe. That you allowed us to be here in this place of worship. Praise you, God. I ask that you would open our ears to the word this morning as we hear it. In Jesus' name.

We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, we're going to seek to cover today verses 2 through 6. We'll see how that goes. However, let's read starting in verse 1 all the way through verse 13 so that we can get within the context and mindset of what the Apostle Paul is saying here in this text.

So let's read there in Ephesians 3 starting in verse 1. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

This is the reading of God's holy inspired word. Let's go to him in prayer once again and ask that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds to this immensely tremendous truth. Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again humbly acknowledging our frailty, our finite minds. And so your word being clear, being precise, we often misunderstand, we often distort. So Father, I ask this morning that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we the believers in this room would be able to see it clearly or guard my lips from error, guard their ears from hearing and processing error if that comes forth from this pulpit, God.

Because your word is the only thing that is infallible. Your word is the only thing that is true. So Father, help us to trust in it, help us to see it with clear thought and help us not to just be hearers of the word, Father, but doers of that word once you've revealed that truth to us.

In Christ's name, amen. Well, if you were with us last week, you may recall that we focused our attention primarily there on verse 1 here in chapter 3 where I pointed to the fact that this portion of the letter, it really does seem a bit disjointed, doesn't it?

It seems like this is a little confusing because I'm not sure I can follow Paul's train of thought here because Paul starts out there in verse 1 and then immediately interrupts his thought only to pick it right back up later in verse 14 where he just repeats the phrase, for this reason.

And so we have this big chunk of verses here from 2 to 13. What is this? What does this mean? Where's Paul going? And as I said last week, I believe this shows us something about Paul. We see the heart of Paul in this, right?

This is a human author inspired by the Holy Spirit and we see Paul's humanity coming out in how he writes in that he's not so concerned with proper literary structure. Paul is more concerned with the saints there.

He has a great love for them and he is concerned with the truth coming forward but also the very people that he is conveying that truth to. And we see his heart here because when he says that he is a prisoner there in verse 1 and that it's on behalf of them, the people that he's writing to, you Gentile believers, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

I'm chained to a Roman guard here and it's on behalf of you. He knows in that moment, it's almost as if he realizes how this is going to make these Gentile readers feel. It's going to leave them with great discouragement, isn't it?

It's going to leave them thinking, oh, I feel bad for Paul. What if that's my future? If it's Paul's future, what if I'm going to be in prison? And they become discouraged and he knows this. And so he pauses his train of thought to further clarify and to encourage because of his great love for the saints.

Because remember, Paul loves truth and everything that he writes is truth here in the Word of God because it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. And he loves that truth but he also loves the people in whom he is trying to present that truth to.

And he wants to present it to them in a loving, compassionate, understandable way. And so we see this here because it's precisely what he does here in verses 2 -13. He tries to encourage the saints. And he starts off there in verse 2 reminding them of God's calling on his life.

He's reminding the saints of God's calling on his life. Look at it with me. Let's start in verse 1 so we kind of see the break. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, and most of your Bibles have a dash there, right?

It's like he stops his thought. It's like, hold on, interrupt. Here's a parenthesis. I'm going to add this in here. Verse 2, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

Now, at a glance, it may seem as though Paul is saying, hey, you might have heard of this gift that God has given me. You know, it might have crossed your path. You might have heard about this calling that God has placed on my life, but that's not what Paul is saying in the language that he uses because this expression is presumptive rather than suppositional.

It's basically saying you have most certainly heard it. They've heard it because, remember, Paul has already spent three years with the church in Ephesus. He spent more time in Ephesus than he spent in any of his missionary endeavors, right?

So he has poured into these people. They know who Paul is. They know this calling from Paul. And so he's not saying, well, assuming that you've heard, in a sense that, well, maybe you've heard. No, he knows they've heard.

He knows that they have heard. They know. He's assuming, yeah, you've heard of this. You know my calling. And what have they heard? Well, look at it. Of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to him.

Now, this word stewardship here, some of your translations say administration. And this comes from a root word in the Greek referring to the manager of a household, okay? We have to get some cultural context here, I think, because how many of you have a manager of your household that's not you, right?

I don't think many of us in here do. But in this time, households would have a servant who took care of what allotted tasks and responsibilities that the master had assigned to them to care for, and they were managing the household for the master in those areas.

Now, in our context, we would think of this more as the responsibility of a wife. The wife is there at home caring for these responsibilities, and we husbands, we assign particular responsibilities that our wives manage on the day-to-day under the banner of our authority, right?

So we think of it in those categories. We can see this is a manager of a household. And so what Paul is saying here is that, hey, you're aware of the fact that the master of the house— now hold on, remember, if you were with us two weeks ago in this study, back in chapter 2, the very last verse of chapter 2, verse 22, I believe, he has just gotten through telling them that we, the church, are being built up into a household of faith, the household for God.

We're being built up into a temple. And now the master of that house that we're being built up into has assigned this task to the apostle Paul. He has made him a steward. He has made him an administrator of sorts.

So steward of what? What has God made Paul a steward of? What is he telling the church in Ephesus here? Well, look at it. A steward of God's grace that was given to him. Of God's grace that was given to him.

Think about this for a second. Paul is sitting there, chained to a Roman guard, 24 hours a day. He's been wrongfully imprisoned. He's lost all of his freedoms. He's lost any kind of ability to go out in the streets and preach the gospel as he does.

He's lost his ability to really fellowship with the brothers. He's lost his ability together with the saints on the Lord's Day. He's lost the ability to do all of these things. He's been stripped from anything and everything in his life.

He has no means of making money. He has to rely on other Christians in the community just to provide for him if he wants to eat. Because the prison system wasn't like it is today. They didn't give you a three-course meal during the day.

Somebody had to come provide for you. He's totally reliant on them. He's in this circumstance, and it's on behalf of the Gentiles. He's already said that, hasn't he? It's on behalf of the people that he's writing this letter to and laying out all of this theological structure.

And here, Paul's not complaining. Paul isn't complaining. He's actually on the opposite. He's trying to console the saints that he's writing to. He's trying to give them peace in this moment. During his circumstances.

How in the world does Paul have such peace about his circumstances? He's writing this and trying to encourage and give peace to the readers that are sitting in their homes and gathering in their churches and have freedom that he doesn't have.

How does he have this? It's because of, look at it, God's grace that was given to him. His perspective is so different than most of ours is often, isn't it? The apostle Paul's understanding is such big picture, eternal mindset.

You remember who Paul was before this grace, don't you? It was Saul of Tarsus. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a Pharisee. He was thoroughly opposed to Christ. He hated Christ followers because he hated Christ.

And what did he do? He hunted them down to imprison them so that he could crush this whole Christian thing. Whatever it was, he wanted to destroy it. He was dead in his sins. He was a slave to sin just as each one of us was.

And that is who Paul was. But God being rich in mercy, what does he do? He sought and saved Paul, didn't he? Saved him from his sins. Paul refers to himself elsewhere as the chief of sinners. Paul is painfully aware of who he was, of what he was, and the consequences of that.

Very aware of that past life and his past position. But now Paul has been saved by the grace of God. Jesus himself came straight to Paul. Saul, why do you persecute me? Called him to himself. And it saved him.

He has been chosen by God the Father. He has been purchased by God the Son. And he has been sealed by the Holy Spirit as we've been seeing in chapter 1.

Amen?

This is Paul's position. And this led him to make declarations like, listen, for me to live is Christ. For me, Paul, anything that I do, I'm not living for my education and academics. I'm not living to be a Pharisee.

I'm not living for my family. I'm not living for my career. I'm not living for an image. I'm not living for myself. I'm not living for my laziness. I'm not living for anything. For me to live is Christ.

Because Christ in me. I belong to him now. Oh, but to die, that's gain. It's a completely different way of thinking. This is how Paul has peace. And so with this perspective, his circumstances just pale in comparison to the eternal weight of glory that he's sealed for.

And he knows that it's not theoretical to him. It's not just theological practice to him. It's legitimate life practice. Because that theology has changed his mind. It has renewed his mind. And it has percolated into his heart.

And it has now changed his heart. And now his entire world is saturated into this great truth. That no matter where I am, I can have peace in all circumstances, as he says in Philippians, right? This is the perspective that Paul has.

And he wants these Gentile readers to be as encouraged about this as he is, doesn't he? That's his heart for them. He's trying to give them this theological paradigm of how God has chosen them and how Jesus has paid for them and how the Holy Spirit has sealed them and working in them.

He's given them all of the theology. But in the moment, right in the thick of it, before he prays for them, he wants them to understand this changes everything. It doesn't just change your position eternally.

It changes your position now. It changes your perspective now, doesn't it? This is what Paul is doing. Assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. Again, he's affirming this.

My imprisonment is in Christ, and it's on behalf of you Gentiles. That's what he said in verse 1, right? And now he says right here, it's of the grace of God that was given to me. God's grace, he saved me.

He's put me into this position, and it's for you. It's for your benefit. It's on behalf of you Gentiles. The ones that I'm writing to and trying to encourage in this moment. Later on in this chapter, look at verse 8.

He says, to me, though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given. This beautiful grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ was given to me, the least of all the saints, to preach to the Gentiles.

It's for them. That's what God has called him to. So Paul is essentially saying, don't feel sorry for me, Ephesian Christians. Don't feel sorry for me and my circumstances. As a matter of fact, you know when you should feel sorry for me?

Is if I was still dead in my sins. You feel sorry for me then, but now there's nothing to feel sorry for. Because these circumstances are for the glory of God, and he's placed me here.

He's saved.

And has called him to steward this calling well, hasn't he? Paul has been called to steward this calling well. God has placed him here. What's this calling? What's the calling that he's to steward here?

He received the grace of God unbeknownst to him, right? Paul didn't receive the grace of God. He was given the grace of God. He didn't go chasing after the grace of God. He was chasing the opposite direction.

God chased him and gave him the grace. So what is it that he's stewarding? He didn't supply it. God supplied it. The triune God supplied this grace. But what is this calling that he's referring to? It's to suffer.

To be imprisoned. To be beaten. For preaching the gospel of grace to the Gentiles.

Right?

This is what this calling is. To preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Now we're going to talk a little bit more about that in greater detail next week. So I'm having trouble putting a governor on this and dealing with every little circumstance.

So bear with me. If you think, well, Pastor Nathan left some meat on the bone there. Trust me. We're dealing with it. I'm just trying to address one thing at a time here.

Okay?

And he's called him to be a good steward of. Look what he says in verse 3. You've heard. I'm assuming that you've heard. Meaning I know that you've heard how the mystery was made known to me by revelation.

As I have written briefly. You see, Paul is happy to suffer this light momentary affliction because he's been chosen to. He's been called to it. The grace that God has given him, all of his circumstances pale in comparison of, right?

But this light momentary affliction because he's been chosen to proclaim the mystery of the gospel to the nations. The mystery of the gospel. This mystery that had been revealed to him. What is this mystery?

Well, notice what he says. As I have written briefly. There in verse 3. The end.

Okay?

That gives us some insight into what he's talking about here. Now, there's some debate as to what Paul is referring to here. As a matter of fact, Calvin believed that, man, there must have been previous letters from the apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus that didn't make it into scripture.

And he must be referring to some of these previous letters. That's what he's got to be talking about. And some have held that view. There's some debate on it. However, it seems as though he is speaking of something previously said in this letter.

Something that is more immediate. And so what is that? Well, I think we see a pattern of it. Look at chapter 1 verse 9. We see this just connecting, weaving through these previous two chapters. In chapter 1 verse 9, he says,.

And we've already talked about these verses. We've already kind of broken those down and gotten the context of these. But we see this pattern of what is this mystery. I think it starts here. Making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ.

What did he set forth in Christ? The gospel to all nations, right? And what did he set forth there? Look at chapter 2 verse 16. What's the gospel to all nations? Chapter 2 verse 16 he says,. And might reconcile us, both Jew, Gentile, from every tribe, nation, and tongue.

Reconcile us to God in one body through the cross. Thereby killing the hostility. This is what Paul is referring to. This is the mystery of Christ, isn't it? This is the mystery of what he's talking about here in chapter 3.

Essentially all of this theology of the how and the why we are reconciled that Paul has been laying out over the previous two chapters. And what has been revealed to him as we see there in chapter 3 verse 3.

What is it that's been revealed to the Apostle Paul? Now again, I'm not going to spend as much time on this at the moment. We're going to look at that in greater detail over the next two weeks, okay? So bear with me.

Just know that Paul feels as though this is an honor worth sacrifice.

Okay?

Look at verse 3 again. How the mystery was made known to me. What a calling. You can see now why Paul is sitting in prison and going, Oh, this is worth all of it. The creator of all things bought me from enmity with him to sonship.

And not only that, now he's using me to reveal the mystery of the gospel to the nations. And how does he do it again? By revelation. What is Paul referring to revelation? He's referring to divine communication, isn't he?

This is divine communication directly from God. We see it in a couple of ways in scripture. Either through voice or through vision. God is communicating with the apostles and the prophets in this way.

And we see it in Acts chapter 16 and verse 9 where it says,. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. And God communicates to Paul through a vision. Tells him where to go in that moment. So we see it in vision in Acts chapter 22 verses 17 through 21.

We see that Christ actually speaks to the apostle Paul in a vision. He quotes Jesus from his vision. So Jesus himself is communicating directly to the apostle Paul. Think of Acts chapter 9 that we talked about last week.

The account of Ananias, right? When God speaks to Ananias and tells him to go to Saul and to speak these words to him. He gives him direct revelation in that sense to go and tell what it is that he has him to go and tell.

And you see that they didn't have the New Testament back then, did they? I think we forget that at times. They didn't have what we have, this revelation of God. And so God revealed these truths to and spoke directly to the apostles and the prophets.

Paul being an apostle to the Gentiles, right? So he speaks to him through revelation. Now I have to say God no longer speaks in this way. There's a lot of reasons that we see in Scripture why he doesn't.

But I think this is the easiest way to put it. Because he's told us that he has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That's what Paul wrote, right? That these Scriptures, they give us everything we need for life and godliness.

That the man of God would be lacking nothing, right? Everything right here in his word. They didn't have that fully, did they? Before the apostles, they didn't have the New Testament. All they had were the Old Testament Scriptures.

But now we have things such as what we're studying. We've been here in Ephesians over the past 23 weeks, right here in this letter. And we have heard from God from it, haven't we? We've heard directly from God through his word.

And this is how God speaks to his people. Look at verse 4. When you read this... Think about that for a second. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. God spoke to Paul, Paul wrote God's words, and now you and I read them.

Simple, right? It's simple. We don't need visions anymore. We don't need direct verbal accounts from God any longer, because God has already revealed the mystery.

It's done.

Now when I say that, let me put a caveat on that. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit doesn't prompt and guide you at times. That's not what I'm saying. It's not as though God is unrelational and detached.

God uses means, right? But it always is in conjunction with bringing to mind what he's already said here. Because it's done. We have everything we need. And again, on a side note, this should resonate with us.

If we want to understand God's will, if we want to understand God's purpose, if we want to understand God's plan in our lives, what do we do? If we want to grow in the knowledge of him, what do we do?

He's given it to us, hasn't he? This means to do so. He's given us right here in his word. And I'll be honest with you. Sometimes I just don't go to it. And then I stand around and I go, God, why don't you let me know what you want?

He's like, I wrote it down. Come on, Nathan. All you got to do is go study it. But so often we don't, right? So I'm chasing a rabbit. I'm sorry. We're going to get back to it.

All right.

Well, look at verse 4 again. When you read this, you can perceive, you can understand. It becomes obvious, my insight into the mystery of Christ, right? When you read this, it just jumps off the paper to you, doesn't it?

It stands out to you that it's obvious that he has great insight. God has spoken directly to him. God has given him the words to say. He's revealed this mystery to Paul. And you can see it. You can perceive it.

And again, what is this mystery? Well, look at verse 6. Let's skip verse 5 real quick. Let's just jump right to verse 6. This mystery is, okay, so now he's telling us. I mean, he's just, right? All we have to do is read it.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. We've already seen this glorious truth laid out by Paul in chapter 2, haven't we?

We've talked extensively about the beauty of what God has done to make us one, that there is no longer a divide. He's affirming these Gentile believers are no longer strangers and aliens. They're no longer separated from the covenants.