The True Israel of God

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Well, as I was thinking back this week on all the sermons that I have preached over the last 10 years or so, in this church and in others, by my count somewhere just shy of 200 sermons,

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I must confess that today's message has the capacity to be the single most controversial message that I have ever preached.

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And I want to assure you that it is not because I am looking for controversy.

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If you're familiar with Titus chapter 3 and verse 9 as an example, Scripture tells me to avoid all foolish controversies.

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And I am eager to do just that because I want to obey Scripture and because I love this church and I love the unity that the

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Lord has blessed this church with. I want to do nothing to shake that unity.

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At the same time, this sermon, though controversial, is not controversial because our text of Scripture is unclear or difficult to understand.

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To the contrary, as we will see, this text is clear as day. And at every point it squares with the whole canon of both the

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New Testament and the Old Testament. This sermon, though, has a capacity to be controversial because there's a great deal of confusion on the subject.

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And along with that, there's a great deal of emotion that is bound up in that confusion.

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Now, you might be asking, what could I possibly be preaching on that would require such a disclaimer at the onset?

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And it is this. Today, I am preaching on the relationship between Israel and the church.

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Israel and the church. What are we to make of the nation of Israel today?

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For instance, a good question might be, is ethnic Israel still God's chosen people, even after having despised the

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Messiah that the Lord gave them, that our Father gave them 2 ,000 years ago? Does God recognize, as some contend, that there is a distinction between Israel and the church?

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That He possesses two distinct people, Israel and the church. Both God's people, but separate parties as God's people.

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Or, as some suggest, has Israel been replaced by the church in God's redemptive plan?

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On this side of the cross, what are we to do with ethnic and national

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Israel, and where does the church fit into this scheme? Now, maybe for some of you that might seem like a rather obscure question, a question far removed from ordinary, everyday life.

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So let me put you in a scenario for a moment. That if I were to transport you, first thing tomorrow morning, to the

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University of Alberta, and we were to go stand in the open square in the oldest part of the campus, and if I were to put you between two groups of protesters, one group of pro -Palestine protesters on your left, militant, ferocious pro -Palestine activists, and then on your right, put you next to a crowd of vigorous pro -Israeli supporters on your right.

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And then, if one from the group were to thrust a microphone into your hand, and then ask you, we want to know what

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Christians believe. What does the whole Bible, the Old and the New Testament, teach about the church and Israel today?

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Who are the true people of God? And as you stand there looking at the descendants of Ishmael and their activists, and the descendants of Abraham and their activists, who are you going to side with?

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Or are you going to side with someone? How would you answer that? Would you be equipped to boldly answer such a question?

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And not with, as we often see in this argument, emotional appeals, or political theories, or vague generalities, but would you be able to respond with the clear, soul -piercing truth of God's Word?

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With a firm foundation to stand on in such a scenario. Well, today in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11, we see

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Paul carried along now by the Holy Spirit, and he is going to answer that question.

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Now normally, I would give you the answer up front. I'm usually the kind of guy, I give you the answer, and then

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I show you my work. But today, I'm going to leave you in a bit of suspense for a moment, because I think the nature of the text requires this of us, that we do the exegetical work before we get to the answer.

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But I will say this, as we look at the whole of our passage, what it has to say on this theme, we will see that God's answer to this question is very, very different from the answer that most

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Christians would give in the world today. And it is an answer that exalts the church to a status that few of us would dare even to imagine if it was not spoken of so plainly in Scripture.

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So I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11, if you haven't already turned there.

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And together, I want to read verses 11 and 12, and then we'll dive right into this matter before us.

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Paul writes, Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

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Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

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As we wrestle with this idea of what to do with Israel and the church, we're going to hone in on the nature of the church and the relationship of the church in God's broader redemptive plan.

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And the first thing that we need to grasp as we wrestle with this whole idea is this idea of our former exclusion.

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If you're following along in the bulletin, that's point number one, our former exclusion. Now before we can talk about what we are as the church in relationship to national and spiritual

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Israel, we must first recognize what we were once not. And here

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Paul devotes verses 11 and 12 to this answer. And in these two short verses, he offers a long list of disqualifications that once described every single

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Gentile outside of Christ. Just as Paul starts with the bad news in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, see that with me, how we were dead in our trespasses and sins, so now again he starts with the bad news that finds its application in every

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Gentile before salvation. John Stott referred to this list in verses 11 and 12 as our

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Gentile disabilities. Defects that every Gentile was born with and that are seemingly incurable, bound up inside each and every one of us in every part and parcel of our identities.

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And here Paul lists these defects one by one. And we're going to go through them briskly but in some detail.

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In verse 11, Paul begins by referring to this largely Gentile audience in Ephesus as those who were once Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision.

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Could be translated as the so -called Gentiles, the so -called uncircumcision. As many of us know, circumcision was first introduced in Genesis as a covenant sign between God and Abraham.

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We see it in Genesis chapter 17. And there we read that God gave this covenant sign between Abraham and all of his descendants.

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And for Abraham and for every successive generation, circumcision was a rite of passage, a sign of the covenant that took place on the eighth day after the child's birth and it became an unmistakable physical sign that conveyed that one was a member of the covenant people of Israel.

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That you were a descendant of Abraham, that you were a child of promise, that you bore in your physical body the proof that you were a true

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Jew. It was very easy to determine who was a Jew and who was not a

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Jew. Whoever has this mark on his flesh is a Jew and the one who does not is an imposter.

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And for the men in Israel, this was a point of national pride. They loved their circumcision, so much so that to be called uncircumcised or to be called the uncircumcision was to be ridiculed, to be denigrated as an outsider, as an unclean, profane, godless pagan.

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And we see this in passages like 1 Samuel 17 and verse 26.

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Now what's happening in 1 Samuel 17 and verse 26, you might recall the day when

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David came into the camp of the Israelites. And as he was speaking to the

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Israelite army, he learned of this man Goliath of Gath. And in verse 26,

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David said to the man who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

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For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should deny the living

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God? And the whole idea behind this was that those who were uncircumcised were not to be taken seriously.

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They were deficient in some manner. God was not on their side. In a word, they were inferior.

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Or in Acts chapter 15 in verse 1, we read about the Judaizers that came into the new church.

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And there they maintained that those who were uncircumcised could not be saved in Acts 15.

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But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

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And so in the Jewish mind, to be physically uncircumcised was to be outside of the people of God, the covenant people of God, and outside of God's saving ability.

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And what Paul is saying is, such were you at one time, outside of the covenant people of God, unsavable as far as the nation of Israel was concerned.

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In verse 12, he speaks about how Gentiles, ourselves included, were once separated from Christ.

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Now John chapter 4 in verse 22 tells us that the Lord Jesus himself, when he spoke to the woman in the well, or at the well, not in the well, that would be unfortunate, but at the well, he said, you worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know, for salvation is from the

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Jews. To belong to the Jews, to belong to national Israel, was to belong to the bloodline of the

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Messiah. And to be outside of that bloodline was to be outside of the messianic promise.

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And then more than that, as our Lord speaks to this woman in the well in John chapter 4 in verse 22, he speaks about knowledge in worship.

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And where he's going with is this, that, where am

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I? Sorry. The book of nature, general revelation, will tell us enough to be accountable to God.

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But only the scriptures, God's special revelation, this was given only to Israel.

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And this only could offer a saving knowledge of Christ. And so to be outside of the

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Jews was to be outside of the knowledge of Christ, and therefore outside of Christ. But more than that, he speaks about being alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.

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Strangers to the covenants of promise. Now what does that mean, to be alienated from the commonwealth of Israel?

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When we think about commonwealth today, the first thing that comes to my mind actually is doing evangelism outside commonwealth stadium.

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But we think about the British commonwealth, all those nations that belong to the British commonwealth.

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What would it be to be outside of the commonwealth of Israel? This would be to be denied citizenship from the one nation of whom

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God was monarch and king, national Israel. Paul is telling his

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Gentile readers that the best status that they could ever achieve to was that of an alien.

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That of an unwelcomed foreigner. The rights, the protections, the liberties granted to citizens of Israel were not granted to the

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Gentiles. And this was clearly seen in even the worship rights of non -citizens.

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You might recall when we were looking in the Gospel of Mark and we were getting to the description of the temple mount.

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If anyone recalls that and the various aspects of the temple complex. Well if you were to go into the temple complex as a

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Gentile, there was only one place that you could go. Being that you were outside of the people of Israel, outside of the covenant and commonwealth people of Israel.

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And that was the court of the Gentiles. And the court of the Gentiles was a place for second class citizens.

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Second class worshippers. And if you were to go into the court of the Gentiles as a Gentile worshipper, what you would find is that there would be a massive wall between you and the

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Israelites, the true worshippers of God. And there was a sign in fact on that wall that said that anyone, any

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Gentile who bypassed that wall, who went to worship God near to the temple with the nation of Israel, well you were responsible for your own death.

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That it was a certain death that was coming to you. And that's why if you remember back to Acts chapter 21 when the

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Apostle Paul was in the temple and the Jews seized him, grabbed him, pulled him out into the streets, they were ready to kill him.

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Do you remember why it was? They accused him of bringing Gentiles into the temple.

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And so you were not a member of the commonwealth of Israel. And you were even a second class citizen in the worship of Israel's God.

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And you were strangers to the covenants of promise as it says in scripture. All of the gracious covenants that God made with his people.

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All of the blessed promises that were attached to those covenants. Think about those blessings for a moment.

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Life and blessing and peace and protection, a secure homeland, a thriving family.

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Forgiveness, salvation, access to God, a new heart, everything.

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All of these were off limits to you, oh pagan Gentile. To be a

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Gentile in Israel meant that you could never be more than a mere spectator of these covenants and these promises.

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You could watch. Think what it's like if many of us are siblings. Imagine an older sibling or a younger sibling in this situation.

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You could watch Israel open every good gift that God gave them.

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To cast it on the ground and to trample it in defiance of him.

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But you could never reach out your hand and lay claim to even one of those promises.

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You were a stranger to those promises. The Jews after all were

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God's children and you were something akin to a dog under the table of their feasting.

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And then Paul summarizes all this in the end of verse 12. That because of this status, because of this condition as a lost and pagan

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Gentile, you had no hope. And were without God in the world.

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Having no hope and without God in the world. And if we see this as a parallel to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, the equivalence of this would be this statement.

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Just as in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1 we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Paul is saying in effect and you were dead in your

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Gentileness. Altogether estranged from the nation. Altogether estranged from the true people of God.

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Altogether estranged from God himself. Now are you a

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Gentile or like me a Christian of Gentile origin?

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As far as I'm aware I have no Jew in my bloodline. Maybe if I did a 23 in me but I don't trust what they would do with my

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DNA. Are you not of the pure bloodline of Israel?

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But like me a mutt of mixed origins of who knows what. Of all kinds of ethnicities and nationalities.

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Brethren if you are like me then because of your

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Gentile birth you have no outside of Christ, no blessings, no promises, no

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God, no hope in the world. There was a hopelessly impenetrable wall separating us

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Gentiles in the flesh from the Israel of God and the God of Israel.

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Now I was thinking this week what kind of visible depiction of this wall, what that might look like.

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To be altogether separated from God and his people. And my mind went to the

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Berlin Wall. If anyone recalls the Berlin Wall. Some of you were born when the

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Berlin Wall fell in 1989. But on the morning of August 13th 1961 the citizens of communist

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Germany in the east awoke to find a hastily erected barbed wire fence separating the east side of the city from the west side of the city.

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And if people would have been alarmed by this at least they might have been comforted by the fact that it looked like a temporary structure.

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Just a barbed wire fence. And what this fence represented was a clash of ideals between the west and the values of the west and the communist ideals of the east.

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And leading up to 1961 there were some 2 million people that crossed from east to west

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Germany to escape those communist ideals. But on August 13th 1961 the barbed wire fence went up.

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And then again if you were comforted at all that it looked temporary you would have been very concerned to see that eventually that barbed wire was replaced by 15 foot high concrete walls.

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With barbed wire along the top. And then hundreds of guard towers along that wall.

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And then because the east Germans realized that two walls were better than one for the course of 43 kilometers another wall was built behind that wall.

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And there was a no man's land behind the two walls almost 500 feet. And there were trenches so that vehicles couldn't pass through.

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And guard dogs that roamed no man's land. What they actually called the death strip.

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Land mines. Booby trapped trip wire machine guns. So you trip over a wire and a machine gun shoots you to death.

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And the people of east Berlin were told that that wall was built to keep them safe from what was beyond the wall.

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What was in the west. The values of the west. And their enemies in the west. But it was plain to see that this was never intended.

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This was never the intention of the wall. But the Berlin wall existed for one reason. To keep the people of east

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Berlin in east Berlin. And away from freedom. And yet despite this seemingly impossible barrier over 5000 people escaped going over going through even going under this wall.

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There's some fascinating stories of people making homemade hot air balloons just to get over the walls and the death strip.

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But the same was not possible for us gentiles in the flesh. We were without hope and without God in the world.

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There was no blimp. There was no ultra light plane. I read of one person who used a bow and arrow with a steel cable.

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He shot to a building across and then ziplined across. There was no zipline for us to go from gentiles in the flesh to the true beloved accepted people of God.

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Matthew Henry summarizes this so powerfully when he writes. Who can without trembling reflect upon the misery of a person separated forever from the people of God.

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Cut off from the body of Christ. Fallen from the covenants. A promise having no hope.

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No savior. And without any God but a God of vengeance. And that to all eternity.

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To have no part in Christ. He asks what true

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Christian can hear this without horror. Brethren that that is where we were.

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Apart from Christ. And with no way across that wall that lie between us and him.

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No way across that wall that lie between us and belonging to him as his beloved people.

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But if we have learned anything from the book of Ephesians. You know what word is coming next.

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In verse 13. But reading verses 13 through 8.

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But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

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By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. That he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

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So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.

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Thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off.

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And peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the father.

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So Paul has set this dark stage. This dark and ominous stage.

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And now there is another curtain that he tears away.

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That in our very moment of despair he shows us the second aspect of this passage.

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The second point of this sermon. A radical reconciliation. Though we were once without hope and without God in this world.

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Now in Christ Jesus we who were once far off. That's a perfect summary of what our condition was.

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Far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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I love what one commentator says. He says here we see the portrait of the peacemaker

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Christ. And behind this curtain if I might add. There is one who from eternity past the great peacemaker

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Jesus Christ. Had a plan to unite not only humanity to God.

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But glory upon glory humanity reconciled to humanity. And by spilling his blood we see in verse 13.

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Through his hanging accursed on the cross in our place. In verse 16.

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And now by the powerful working of his spirit. We see that in verse 18. We have been reconciled in one body.

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In Christ Jesus. Here we find that Paul is very very interested.

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And so we should as well very very interested. In conveying to us that the efficacy of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross.

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Extends far beyond the parameters that we normally set. And we'll see how he lays out these parameters in detail.

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In verse 13 he speaks about us being brought near by the blood of Christ. Now in verse 13.

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What he's going on to speak here is that through Christ's shed blood.

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Christ has now given us unhindered access to God. Though we were once without God and without hope in this world.

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Now through faith in Jesus Christ. We can approach God the Father with great peace.

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And with great joy. Apart from hostility and condemnation.

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And the fear of wrath. Through Christ we have been restored to unity with God.

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I want you to see this with me for a moment. That Paul here in his ordering of this. As he speaks of Christ's reconciling work.

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He first gives priority to a reconciled relationship with God. Before he touches on any other detail.

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And this highlights the attitude that we are to have. Concerning all the benefits of Christ's saving work.

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That we cannot prioritize the harmonizing of our horizontal relationships and concerns.

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Above our chief vertical relationship and concern with God.

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And this is what has gone wrong in many social justice focused churches. In social gospel churches.

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Is they have become concerned with the horizontal at the cost of the vertical.

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But here Paul deals with the vertical first. That before we can be reconciled to each other.

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We must first be reconciled to the living God through Jesus Christ. Through him who suffered for sin on the cross.

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That he might bring us to God. And only then, only when we have been reconciled to God.

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Then we can concern ourselves with the horizontal blessings of Christ's work.

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In verse 14 it speaks to how he himself is our peace.

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As Paul moves through this logical sequence. He demonstrates that he who made us both

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Jew and Gentile. He has made us now both one. And that dividing wall of hostility has been destroyed.

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And where this dividing wall of hostility once stood. Separating Jewish worshiper from Gentile worshiper.

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With a threat of death to any of those who cross that line. Now in Christ any physical, any spiritual wall that once was present.

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Has been flattened in him. Unless you think that I'm going to be just hard on the

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Jewish perspective. If you lived in the Greco -Roman world and you are not a Jew. Make no mistake about it.

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There was hostility that was aimed towards the Jews as well. Anyone who was outside of that Greco -Roman world view.

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Was a barbarian. They considered themselves the superior people.

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They surmised that Greek was the language of the gods. And so if you spoke

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Hebrew. You're an outsider. And so the Jews excluded the nations on the grounds of their heritage.

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And the Gentiles, the Greco -Roman world excluded the Jews on the basis of their culture.

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But what here Christ does is he comes with his steamroller. Aimed at that wall and he flattens it.

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So that there is nothing. Not so much as a seam between the two groups.

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Because you know I love to illustrate these points from the Puritan era. I found one that's a perfect, an excellent and a humorous example of this.

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There was once a man named John Elliot. He was a 17th century Puritan. You've probably never heard of John Elliot.

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But he was known as the apostle to the Indians. And that's because he had a special ministry to the indigenous people in the new world.

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He was a faithful, a godly Christian. Well respected by his peers. And one day as he was in his home.

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A group of ministers approached him. And they were all in a kerfuffle. Because there had been some kind of offense.

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And so the ministers came with a piece of paper. Documenting the offenses that they had against another man.

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And they thought surely John Elliot who is an honorable man. A godly man.

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Because we are honorable and godly. He will side with us. And so they came and presented their letter.

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With all of the charges against this individual or these individuals. And John Elliot took the letter from them.

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And then very graciously walked with it to the fireplace. And cast it into the fire.

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Relaying to them that there was zero purpose for their hostility.

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And in that one swift motion. There was a silence that came over the group. And then peace and forgiveness.

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Why would you bother me with such an offense? When Christ died for your sins.

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And for their sins. For his sins. And when Christ went to that cross.

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He took every one of our hostilities. And there they were nailed to the cross with him.

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And they are gone. And this is why you might see my feathers get ruffled.

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When I see in the progressive church. A return to critical theory.

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And to the division of groups within the church based on race.

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Why? Because Christ bulldozed every single one of those walls.

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And all of us now are one in Christ. Colossians 3 .11 Here there is not

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Greek and Jew. Circumcised and uncircumcised. Barbarian, Scythian. Slave, free.

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You see Paul is trying to capture all of the categories of his day. But Christ is all and in all.

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Now you might ask. Now the Lord. There is a whole section of my

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Bible. That speaks to the division between Jew and Gentile. What am

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I to make with that shame? Do we just cancel that out?

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Or as one man said. God broke the law for love. And so we are just going to trample that law.

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Verse 15 tells us. That through Christ's shed blood.

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He abolished that law. Now what does this mean?

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How can Christ abolish these laws that allowed for the division between Jews and Gentiles?

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What it means is that Christ lived a perfectly righteous life.

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That he fulfilled that old covenant law in himself. That moral law even that we could never attain to.

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There even there. He lived a perfectly righteous life. And having lived a perfectly righteous life.

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He died on a cross in our place. He took the curse of the law upon himself for us.

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And in doing so. Through the remission or through the shedding of blood.

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He ushered in a new covenant. That abolished all of the former civil and ceremonial laws.

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That made Gentiles strangers and aliens to his covenant promise. And so through the death of himself.

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He inaugurated a new covenant. A new covenant that includes

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Jew and Gentile together. And before I really drive this home in my teaching.

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From verse 15. I want you to see common language please.

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See this with me. That Paul uses. Beginning in verse 14.

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We're told that Christ has made us both one. In verse 16. That he has reconciled us in one body.

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And then in verse 18. That we have access to God through one spirit.

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Now remember. Remember what I said. This is where the disclaimer comes in handy.

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Now that I've laid it out. That I'm not saying this to be controversial.

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I'm not saying this to ruffle feathers. And if your feathers are ruffled. Please talk to me afterwards.

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But in verse 15. We see one of the key benefits of Christ's saving work.

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In the second half of that verse. That he might create in himself. One new man in place of the two.

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What then do we make of the church. And of Israel. On this side of the cross.

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What is Paul teaching? The most controversial sentence I've ever preached.

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That there is no distinction. Between Jew and Gentile. So long as those

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Gentiles are in Christ. Though we were once dead in our Gentileness.

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Christ has broken down the dividing wall. And has made the two one.

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So that we might now rejoice in this fact. That the church is now.

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Or that the church now belongs. To the true Israel of God. That the church belongs to the true

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Israel of God. Theologians have put it this way. That the church along with every believing

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Jew. Past, present and future. Constitute the new and the true

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Israel of God. I was speaking with our sister Mayanna about this a couple of weeks ago.

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I think we were doing dishes or something. And I was explaining to her this idea.

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That the church is the new Israel of God. And she said. Where do you find that idea of the new

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Israel in scripture? It was a good question. To which I point us to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 15.

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In place of the two, what do we see? But one new man.

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One commentator writes. The church grows out of Israel. By way of a redemptive historical fulfillment.

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Israel was the typical church. That is a type or a shadow of the fulfillment of the church.

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And the church today is that fulfillment. In other words, the church's inclusion in Israel of God.

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Is Israel in full bloom. Israel in full maturity. It is the fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes.

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That were kept as a mystery for millennia. And have now been revealed to the saints.

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Through the apostles and the prophets. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 6. Let's look there. This mystery is that the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs. Members of the same body. And partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

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Through the gospel. Now before you discount anything

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I've said. If you're unconvinced by this argument. Stay with me just a little longer.

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Because what we see. If you know what a chiasm is. We see a beautiful, a perfect, a symmetrical chiasm in this passage.

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A chiasm comes from the Greek letter chi. Which looks like an

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X. It is symmetrical. It comes out, it goes back in. It comes out, it goes back in.

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Or vice versa, however you want to put that. And here we see that Paul has a chiasm to drive home this idea.

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That we are, along with believing Israel.

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One new Israel in Christ. In verse 19. He says,

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. Do you recognize that language? But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

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Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ himself, Christ Jesus himself.

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Christ himself being the cornerstone. In whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. The last section of this text might be called our unqualified inclusion.

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That if you are in Christ today, at this moment, in your seats. You are unqualified, qualifiedly.

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I'll say it that way. Included in the nation of Israel. In the blessings and in the covenants.

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And in the promises and in the beloved standing before God. R .C.

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Sproul writes that everything that is included in verses 11 and 12. If we look back there for a second.

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All of these are blessings that once belonged exclusively to Israel. That's why

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Paul uses that counter argument. You were once Gentiles in the flesh. Well that's the opposite of being an

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Israelite in the flesh. Or in the spirit for that matter. And what

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Sproul says here is that Romans 9 verses 3 and 5 mirror this as he speaks about it.

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I want you to turn there with me. To Romans chapter 9 verse 3. Because I really need to make my case now.

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Bold claims require a bold backing. Here Paul lists all of these things that defined

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Israel as a nation. In Romans chapter 9 we'll start in verse 3. And see how many you recognize from Ephesians chapter 2.

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For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off for the sake of my brothers.

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My kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites. And to them belong the adoption.

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The glory. The covenants. The giving of the law. The worship. And the promises.

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To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race according to the flesh is the Christ.

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Who is God over all. Blessed forever. Amen. So what

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Sproul is doing as he argues this point is that just as we were once excluded from all that it meant to be a

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Jew. As we're going to see in this coming section we are now included in all that it means to be a

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Jew. And see this with me. This distinction. It's an important distinction that we need to notice.

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That in Romans chapter 9 in verse 3 he speaks that the

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Jews are his kinsmen. But kinsmen with a qualification.

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Kinsmen according to the flesh. Meaning that there still were ethnic

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Jews post the cross. There still are ethnic Jews today. I believe that the

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Lord has a purpose for those ethnic Jews. I'm not denying that there are ethnic Israelites.

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But what he is saying is this. That true Jews. The true Israel of God.

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Are those who are not just Jews outwardly. Merely outwardly. But they are those who are

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Jews inwardly. And seeing how we're in Romans. Let's turn to Romans chapter 2.

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We'll be Bereans. Is this true? He writes,

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For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly. Nor is circumcision outward and physical.

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But a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart.

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Notice that it was by the spirit that Paul spoke that we were included.

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And now he says, Circumcision is a matter of the heart. By the spirit.

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Not by the letter. Brothers and sisters.

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What Paul wants to convey in this chiastic structure. And as he details these attributes of Israel.

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Is that every blood -bought Christian in this world. I'm looking at all of you.

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In all the shapes, colors, and sizes that we come in. Regardless of your race.

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Your ethnicity. Your country of origin. If you are in Christ.

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You are a true Jew inwardly. Not by circumcision of the flesh. But by circumcision of the heart.

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And then Paul backs this up. As he gets into verse 19. How we are no longer strangers.

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No longer aliens. No longer strangers to the commonwealth of Israel.

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No longer strangers to the covenants of Israel. There is a fascinating occurrence in Jeremiah 31.

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In verse 31. When the Lord is giving his new covenant to the nation of Israel.

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He says that, Behold days are coming declares the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.

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And with the house of Judah. Now brethren. I was not born into the house of Judah.

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I was not born into the house of Israel. But I have the assurance of almighty

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God and of his scriptures. That I am a partaker in the new covenant. Now how could that possibly be?

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Only if the Lord were to graft me and you into that nation of Israel.

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And what that means is that all of those covenant promises.

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Are ours in Christ. All the ones that remain. 2

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Corinthians 1 and verse 20. For all the promises of God find their yes in him.

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In who? In Abraham? But no in Christ. So all the covenantal promises that remain in effect today.

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Not only apply to the nation of Israel. But to every believer in Christ Jesus.

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He says that we are no longer aliens. I might add if we were to borrow from verses 11 and 12.

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Aliens to the commonwealth. Or of the commonwealth. And fellow citizens he calls us with the saints.

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There's so many texts that I could run to here. Galatians 6 .16 is probably one of the pivotal texts.

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Where Paul as he's speaking to the Galatians he says. And the Galatians were largely

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Gentile in their origin. That's why they were having so many difficulties with the Judaizers. And he says there neither uncircumcision counts for anything.

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Sorry neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. But he says a new creation.

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A new Israel of God if I can put it that way. And he says all and as for all who walk by this rule.

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Peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. Now that phrase and upon the

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Israel of God. Some of our and they are dear brothers and sisters of ours.

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Our dear brothers and sisters who believe in a premillennial dispensationalism.

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That hold to two distinct peoples of God. Some of them have said well you know what he's saying is.

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Blessed upon you and upon the Israel of God. But the context does not allow for that.

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He's just finished talking about how circumcision means nothing. Uncircumcision in this new covenant means absolutely zip.

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And then is he going to go and rebuild circumcision. In the next half of that sentence.

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But that and it's an ex or an ep exegetical chi.

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That means probably nothing to you. But the context and the grammar means this. That it could be just as well translated.

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Peace and mercy be upon them even the Israel of God. And we are members of the household of God he says.

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We heard our brother preach on adoption in Ephesians chapter one. Can you imagine for a moment what it would be.

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If you were adopted into a family. And they say welcome to the family.

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We are so happy to have you here. But just so you know. You don't actually belong.

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You're not actually a member of our household. You're not actually one of us.

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We're happy to feed you. We're happy to clothe you. We're happy to look after you. But don't you ever consider yourself a member of this household.

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That would be a mistake. Would the Lord our God do that.

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But no we have been adopted into the household of God.

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And that language of adoption. It is reminiscent of what our brother read in Romans chapter 11.

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The engrafting of the wild olive branch. It doesn't belong. But by God's grace he cuts a notch.

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And he takes that wild olive branch. And he plugs it into that tree.

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And that one wild olive branch. And then the other. And then the other. And then the other.

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How many trees does it become? It remains one tree.

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And so the Lord has engrafted every believer in Christ.

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Every wild olive branch that we were. Deserving of being thrown into the fire.

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He has grafted that into his one people. And so if someone says to you after the service.

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I didn't know that Shane believes in replacement theology. Say to them he doesn't.

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Because this is not replacement theology. This is not supersessionism.

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As it's pejoratively used in the theological world. This is a theology of the continuation of the people of God.

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To the full flourishing of the olive tree. So that we find in the church and in believing

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Israel. The one true mature people of God. The true

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Israel. For we are the circumcision

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Paul says in Philippians 3. Who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.

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And put no confidence in the flesh. Our relation to the

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Israel of God. Has nothing to do with our fleshly works. Or our fleshly origins.

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But where our confidence is. And if our confidence is in Christ. We belong to the true

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Israel of God. In verse 22. Verse 21 and 22.

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Now not only is there no longer a dividing wall of hostility. That keeps us from the people of God.

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And that keeps us from the God of our worship. That impenetrable wall.

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Not only has it been bulldozed by Christ. We don't even get to.

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It's not even that we enter into a new part of the temple. But what does Paul say? In verses 21 and 22.

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Let me get back there. I'm in 1 Corinthians. That's not going to help. In whom the whole structure being joined together.

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Grows into a holy temple in the Lord. My dear dispensational friends.

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My brothers. I will sometimes ingest with them. I will say. When they start talking about the third temple being constructed.

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And that eschatological significance. I will say. Brothers. There's already a third temple.

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It is the church. It is the church of the living God. Made up of living stones.

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And we don't just get to draw near to that temple. Where God is.

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But God comes. And makes his home with us. And he lives with us.

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John chapter 14. Verse 23. The Lord Jesus said. If anyone loves me. He will keep my word.

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And my father will love him. And we will come to him. And make our home with him.

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So that one commentator says. Every believer is a living stone in the temple. The church today is a living, growing temple.

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When it is completed. Christ will return. And take that temple to glory. God dwelt in the

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Jewish tabernacle. He dwelt in Solomon's temple. He dwelt in the temple of Christ's body.

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And today he dwells in the church. And the conclusion he reaches.

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That we should all reach is this. What a privilege to be the very habitation of God through the spirit.

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I recall one time driving with a friend. And we worked together. And we were talking about our family heritage.

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And he said. I'm Jewish. This was a number of years ago. And I said. That's fascinating. What tribe did you come from?

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And he said. Well I don't really know the tribe. But I'm Jewish. And he was going on about some of the hardships. That his family has experienced as an ethnic

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Jew. And I remember sitting in the car. And I made a comment. And even as I made the comment.

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I wondered to myself. Does this comment hold any water at all?

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But I said. Oh I would love to be a Jew. That would be so cool.

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To belong to the heritage of God's people. To say that Abraham is my great, great, great, great grandfather.

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That I belong to the lineage of the Messiah. That somehow there is an advantage to me being an ethnic

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Jew. I'm here today to tell you.

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That every good thing. That comes from being a member of the covenant people of God.

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From Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Christ. If you are in Christ.

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That is yours. That is your privilege. That is your place of esteem.

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And I want us to see this. And to stand in awe of it. That we are not as some would say.

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A parenthetical thought in God's redemptive timeline. That God he has

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Israel. And then he has the church. And then he has Israel. But no.

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That we are not second class citizens in the kingdom of God. Meant to stand off at the side.

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Meant to be put out. Strangers and aliens and foreigners. So many people in this world want to belong.

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Belong to what they don't know. I believe in my heart of hearts it is this.

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They want to belong to God's one true people. If I can put it this way.

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The new, the true, the continuation of the Israel of God. And such is your place.

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If you are in Christ. See this exalted place of the church with me.

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That you were once not a people. But now you are God's people. You were once a people without hope.

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But now you are the very people who possess the hope of Israel. The lion of the tribe of Judah.

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He is our king. And all of his promises find their yes and amen in him.

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And so if I were to put you into that university campus. And they were to ask you.

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What do we do? Who are the true people of God? What do we do with Israel? What do we do with the church?

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What does the Bible teach? We might say something like this. That I believe that there is an ethnic

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Israel. And at least as politics concern it.

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They have a right to be a nation. They have a right to be a people. And I believe that God has promises for them.

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That I believe God will fulfill. My prayer is that God would save all

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Israel. As our brother read in Romans chapter 11. And yet, the true people of God are not those who are

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Jews outwardly. But those who are Jews inwardly.

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To those who have a true circumcision of the heart. God only has one people.

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And all of those people have placed their faith in Christ. All of those people belong to his church whether visible or invisible.

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And by God's grace, I am one of those people. Let's give thanks to God for that.

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Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us.

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