Ephesians 2 (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on

the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, ìBut we did not yield in subjection to them for

even an hour ,î so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isnít for

you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial.

Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and

glory of her King.

Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians.

Luther writes, ìI have often proved by experience and still daily

find what a hard matter it is to believe that Christ was given,

not for the holy, righteous, worthy, and such as were his

friends, but Christ was given for the ungodly, for sinners, for the unworthy,

and for his enemies, who have deserved Godís wrath and everlasting death.

Let us therefore, Luther says, arm ourselves with these, and like verses of the Holy Scripture, that you may

be able to answer the devil when he accuses us, saying, ìYou are a sinner, therefore youíre damned

.î.

We respond, ìChrist has given himself for my sins, therefore Satan, you shall not prevail

against me when you go about to terrify me in setting forth the greatness of my sins.

And so to bring me into heaviness, despair, distrust, contempt, and blaspheming God.

As often as you object that I am a sinner, you call me to remembrance of the benefit of Christ

my Redeemer, upon whose shoulders, and not mine, lie all my sins.

For the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Wherefore, when you say I am a sinner, you do not terrify me, you comfort me above

all measure .î.

And it is for that reason we open our Bibles today to Ephesians chapter 2, so I have the privilege of

reminding you of who this Lord is, who Jesus is.

What a great job I have, what a great ministry the Lord has given me, and that is to proclaim the riches of Christ

Jesus to you.

There are many reasons our church is growing.

Number one, I think itís the quality of the parking lot.

Why do people come?

Because they know they want to hear about the Lord Jesus.

As youíve heard me talk about many times, you can get motivational speeches and TED talks in many places.

But where can I go to receive what we call the ordinary means of grace, where we say to

ourselves, ìI want to receive the grace of God ,î and God has ordained it that it is through preaching,

through the Lordís supper, and through baptism.

Thatís how Christians grow, thatís what makes Christians respond with gratitude and praise.

And today we come to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 -12, and I have to tell you, itís all about who Jesus is, itís all

about the triune God and what Heís done.

And itíll help us to walk with our eyes focused on who He is versus ourselves.

You know, when we look to ourselves, thereís nothing but really bad news to see, but thatís why the Lord has us to look up

regularly and often.

Paul is a Christ -centered preacher.

Paul wants us to remember that.

In these days of COVID fog, I donít know if you have COVID fog, but they say up to 30 of people

who have had COVID have some kind of COVID neurological fog for up to

six months afterwards, kind of this brain fog where you canít concentrate and you canít remember things and

you feel sluggish or not sharp.

I just thought that was old age, but I had a CAT scan this week and the doctor said, ìYou know, youíre making good

progress .î And I said, ìIím just so tired, though .î He said, ìYour lungs require a lot of energy to be healed,

and so youíre probably going to have to take a nap every day .î And so I went home immediately to tell my wife,

ìKim, doctorís order, naps every day .î Could you write that down on a script,

please?

But thereís also a spiritual kind of fog that we have, and that is we tend to forget things.

Thatís one of the reasons why we come back every Lordís Day, the first day of the week, to be reminded of the most important

truths in all the world, because weíre a forgetful people.

And thatís exactly what weíre going to look at today in Ephesians chapter 2, something that weíre supposed to remember, and I call it

ìThe Forgotten Command .î Itís a command that many of us donít really know about.

If I told you to love God, youíd say, ìI understand that command .î Love your neighbor, donít steal, donít commit

adultery, honor your parents.

There are many commands that you would say, ìI know those commands .î But today we come to a command that itís

easy to forget, and therefore God commands us to do this very thing.

Well, weíre in the book of Ephesians, and before we get into chapter 2, verse 11, itís good to have a little review.

Big picture, Iím taking two sermons per chapter, twelve chapters, twelve

sermons in total, to get us through the book of Ephesians.

Itís designed to get you to dive deeper, itís designed for you to appreciate it as an overview.

Remember, if youíd get a letter from someone that was important, youíd probably read the entire letter at what,

sixty sittings?

No, you would read it all at once, and so itís good for us to see the entire flow, and faster preaching like this,

I think, assists and augments the local ministry at the church where we go through books of the Bible in a much slower

fashion.

Chapter 1, he starts off with a preface, you see it in verses 1 and 2, itís all about grace and peace,

and I guess if you were washing a car, my dad would wash the car, then he would give me the chamois, he would give me that

piece of leather, smooth leather, and Iíd have to wipe off everything, and it would get full of water

sometimes, and I would have to take that chamois and I would just squeeze it out, which was easier to do when youíre fifteen years

old and when you have arthritis, like I have, but squeeze it out.

If you wanted to squeeze everything out of the book of Ephesians, it would be grace and peace, Godís demerited

favor, and peace, not just an absence of war, but a presence of

peace and blessedness, shalom.

He starts off with this great praise, remember, in verse 3 of chapter 1, and I just, every time I read this, when heís

talking about God the Father to be blessed, I just think of fireworks, itís just going off and

explosions and report, you know, they say with report, and off they go,

and I remember last night I had, I found some fireworks in the house, and so I wanted to light one off, just in honor

of this passage, and so I put it in the fireplace and made sure it pointed the right way, my wife and my daughter

did not like it, but Iím the head of the house, and I lit that thing, and you could just see,

and I thought, thatís Ephesians chapter 1, I mean, not my

disrespecting my wife, but just this powerful, bright, you know what, I closed my eyes

afterwards and I could still see the outline of that burning hot sulfur, and so you

could close your eyes and you think, you know what, hereís Ephesians chapter 1, even though Iím sinful, even though youíre

sinful, God is to be blessed because, you know what, He chose you in eternity past,

He chose you, God chose me, I could say that, Christian, you could say that, and He should have sent His

Son to come and judge me, and He sends His Son to die for me, Jesus

redeemed me, He got me out of the slave pit of sin, and to make sure I couldnít lose

what He did, He gave me the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise, and He sealed me to the day of

redemption, and you can imagine a guy like Paul, who thought he needed to work his way to

heaven by pharisaical keeping the law, when he realized it was grace, it was over for Paul,

it was fireworks in the fireplace every night for Paul, this is 25 years later, and Paul

is still saying, this is how great God is, then at the end of the chapter, he has a prayer request for the

church, thereís Thanksgiving involved, but itís essentially the prayer for the church, that they would understand these truths more

deeply, that they would say to themselves, you know, I have it intellectually, but now Iím growing in my

emotional attachment, and my volitional attachment, and Iím really grasping, this is exactly who this God

is, He is worthy to be worshipped.

Paul then goes to chapter 2, that we saw last week, in a very, very familiar and famous passage,

chapter 2, verses 1 -10, Paul talks a little bit about what we were, what the Lord

did, and then the results, what we were, remember the three words, who can remember the three words, they all

started with D, that describe verses 1, 2 and 3, anybody, you can say them out loud, yes,

there we go, dead, dominated and doomed, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church,

when I was on the phone, I told you the story, and I have to be nice on the phone, even though Iím trying to get something done, if

I see, think thereís an injustice with customer service, Iím just going to go all the way, but I have to be nice, because at

the end of the call, they always say, whatís your email, bbcpastor at

bbcchurch .org, I should just get a fake Google account,

and so this one time, a lady said, oh, youíre a pastor, and I said, guess what I do for a living, oh, youíre a pastor, I said, yes, I am, and now she

wants to kind of talk my language a little bit, even though she probably works for AT &T, and sheís like, I listen to Joe Osteen all the

time, I thought,

M80ís in the fireplace, I said, well, you know what, I donít think you should listen to

Joe Osteen anymore, because he says things like this, I donít like to talk about sin, because people

all know theyíre sinful, and I said, but it was the Lord Jesus, and those he sent, like the Apostle

Paul, that want to talk about sin, because when you realize your prior state, and you realize your

current state, all because of what God did, thereís praise, thereís thanksgiving,

it is good to look back and say, I remember, you know, the old movie title, The Way We Were, and the way we were,

we were dead, and we were dominated by all kinds of lust, the worldís Satan,

the system of the air, and we were enslaved, we couldnít get out, and

the end for us, do you see at the end of verse 3, children of wrath, it was going to be

literally hell to pay, we thought we were free, we thought we were alive, we thought

we had free will to do whatever we wanted, and we were enslaved and headed for

wrath, I mean, itís one thing to say to yourself, when Judy Bowman and Ruth Bolivar

close their eyes, and they wake up as it were, in the presence of God, as a friend and

a savior, what would it be like if your whole life you think, everythingís good between

God and I, I do more good than bad, and you die, and youíre hoping for the best, and you wake up,

and itís going to be doom, we need to be rescued, every single one of us, and so

everything turns with the hinge of verse 4, does it not, of chapter 2, but God,

not and God judged, therefore God exacted justice, but God, and you see words like

mercy, and love, and grace, and kindness,

I didnít mention it much last week, but if you take a look at verse 5, made

us alive together with Christ, we were dead and He makes us alive,

this reminds me of John chapter 11, does it remind you of John 11, thereís Lazarus in the tomb, and

heís dead, how dead is Lazarus?

Heís dead, dead, heís 4 days dead, and Jesus says, Lazarus, what?

Arise, and He makes, I like kids, who likes kids sounds?

I do, most days, Iím just kidding, Iíd rather have a kid cry, or say mom, mom, mom, anytime,

than having some Kenny Loggins music break out on a ringtone, was that

2 weeks ago that it happened here?

Plus, some people think Jesus looks like Kenny Loggins, that makes it all the worse, we do not know what He looked

like, Lazarus, arise, and thatís a good picture

of God, the triune God, weíre dead in trespasses and sins, dominated by the world, and Satan,

and our own lust, and doomed, and God says, youíre alive, and He makes you alive, we use that language of

born again, born from above, and God sovereignly, God monergistically, mono

erg, working alone, God working alone, says, youíre alive, and if it was a cooperation, we did

it together, then the praise would be dimmed, if itís all God, and itís all His glory,

then we say, to God be the glory, great things He has done, the vilest offender, who truly

believes.

Paul says, you share in His triumph, right here in this passage, youíre raised, youíre seated, youíre ascended with the throne

Christ, and may we never think, God was really mad at us, the Father, the Son

assuaged the wrath of God, now God can be nice to us, because of Jesus, no, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,

in eternity past, loved sinners, and went, and sent the Lord Jesus to rescue sinners,

for by grace youíve been saved through faith.

Just a great passage, and now we come to chapter 2, verse 11, and following the

great and forgotten command, and that command is, remember, itís found right there in

chapter 2, verse 11, second word, therefore remember,

thereís a man named Harry Ironside, and he was on a train, he was going from Chicago, he was a pastor at Moody

Church, Chicago, taking a train back in the old days, to Los Angeles, to preach, and a gypsy came up, and

she wanted to read his poem, and Ironside said, are you sure you can do this, you see Iím Scottish,

and I wouldnít want to part with my silver, my money, without getting full value for it, oh yes, gentlemen,

please, I will tell you all, so Ironside gets out his New Testament out of his pocket,

and he said, itís not really necessary for you to tell my fortune, because I have a book that gives me my past, present and future,

let me read it to you, Ephesians chapter 2, hereís my past, you were dead in trespasses and sins,

thatís my past, the woman said, thatís enough, I donít want to hear anymore, Ironside said, but wait,

thereís more, hereís my present, because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made me

alive together with Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, no more, she

said, Ironside, here too is my future, in order that in the coming ages he might show the

incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in kindness to us in Christ Jesus,

the gypsy, according to the account, ran away, and screamed out, I took the wrong man, I took

the wrong man, thatís our past, present and future, but Paulís not quite done yet,

he says, you know what, before God, on a vertical level, we were estranged, Jesus did

something, because he was sent by the father, and the work was applied by the spirit, and thereís some good results that come out of that,

but on a horizontal level, thatís true as well, and thatís what Paul addresses here, not just our

relationship to God, but what about relationship to other people, and therefore he says,

remember, and if the first 10 verses could be summarized by two words, but God, verse 4,

this section could be summarized by two words in verse 13, but now, but

God, but now, let me give you three things that you should

remember from this passage, so that you can remember properly,

and not forget, three simple commands,

before I give the commands, letís take a look at verses 11 and 12, and flesh this out a little

bit, ìTherefore 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, 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

.î Here is the first imperative, thereís not another

imperative in chapter, until chapter 4, verse 25, I believe, typically Paul has a lot of information up front, the first

three chapters, and then hereís how we live it out with some imperatives, but now he gives us this imperative,

and he wants us to remember something, by the way, remember isnít, I just thought of it again, for

instance, this June, June 6th, Kim and I will be married, 33 years,

and I want to remember that anniversary, itís easy to remember, because itís D -Day, of course, very romantic,

what if I just say to myself, ìHoney, I remembered our anniversary .î

When you remember something, you do something about it, when God remembered Noah, He did something,

He already knew all about Noah, but the language is, you remember so that you do something, ìI remember our anniversary,

and therefore Iím going to take you out on a romantic weekend, Iím going to take you to Rome, Iím going to take you

someplace, weíre going to do something, I bought these gifts for you, I wrote these poems for you ,î whatever they are,

ìI remember, and then I did something, it moves me to do something ,î similarly here, itís not just, ìOkay, Iíve got this

mentally down ,î no, Paul wants the church at Ephesus, and every other church in the area, and every church since

then, including ours, to remember, so it moves us to do something, and hereís what itís supposed to move you to do,

to be thankful, to have a grateful heart, to be humble,

to not think weíre so great, Paul wants us to look back at the saving work of

Jesus, did you know John Newton, that writer of amazing grace, had on his desk

a verse, some people put verses on their desks, or up on the wall, hereís John Newton, the slave

trader, and then slave himself, before he got saved, hereís the verse on his desk,

Deuteronomy 15, 15, ìRemember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt, and

thy Lord redeemed thee .î Remember, thatís a common thing in the Old Testament,

to remember and not forget, remember Psalm 103, ìBless the Lord, O my soul, and

forget none of thy benefits .î Deuteronomy 5, ìYou shall remember that you were a

slave .î Deuteronomy 8, ìYou shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness .î

Deuteronomy 9, ìRemember, do not forget .î Deuteronomy 16, ìYou shall remember that you were a slave in

Egypt .î So the first thing Paul wants us to remember, found in verses 11 and 12, is your past,

super easy, I donít always do alliteration, but itís been coming up quite a bit lately,

hereís the outline, ìRemember your past, remember your peace, and remember your place .î Remember your past, remember

your peace, remember your place.

First letís look at, ìRemember your past or your heritage .î Verse 11 and verse 12, ìWhat was

your status if you were a Gentile before you got saved ?î Now there might be a few Jewish people here,

of Jewish origin, but typically, as I look around, we are Gentiles.

What was our status?

And Iíll just give you the big picture, and then weíll dive into the details.

When you look at the sun and the moon and the stars, that canít save you.

You canít say, ìIíve sinned against this Creator, Iím going to need a blood sacrifice,

Iím going to need a Messiah whoís truly God and truly man who will die in my

place and prove that Heís victorious over death by raising Himself from the dead and ascended into Heaven.

I need this God -man to intercede for me even today as Iím on the earth .î You canít get

that from looking up at the sky.

You can get power, wisdom, might.

So youíre going to need special revelation.

Youíre going to need not general truths, but special truths, specific truths.

Things that say, ìYouíre a sinner and you need to have your sins paid for by you or another .î Youíre going to

need to have details.

If youíre a Gentile running around worshiping trees and bugs and

scarab beetles, and you see the sky, you donít see anything except, ìThereís enough up

there to judge me but not save me .î Youíre going to need to be around special revelation,

special things that tell you exactly who the God is, what Heís done, how weíve sinned against Him,

how it can be repaired and breached.

Youíre going to need special revelation.

And guess which country, nation rather, God said gets the special revelation?

The Amalekites?

The Hittites?

The Jezreelites?

If we had young kids, weíd say things like, ìThe Electrolytes?

The Cellulites ?î Theyíre like, ìI donít even get that as a kid .î Youíre going to have

to have special revelation.

And guess what?

Itís through Israel.

Israel is the nation.

Well, if youíre a Gentile, youíre not close to Israel, and Paul is going to remind all of us.

We not only were dead in trespasses and sins, we werenít even close to any information to help us with special revelation

because we werenít part of Israel.

Weíre Gentiles.

My ancestors were in Germany worshiping trees.

Weíre in Africa worshiping trees.

Weíre worshiping animals and bugs and all these other kind of things.

We need to be close to Israel or else thereís no special revelation.

Thatís the big picture here.

Now, sin splits up people, and Gentiles hated Jews, and Jews

hated Gentiles.

So much so, and Iíll just make a passing comment, but itís in the Greek and you get the idea of how much

derision they had.

You formally, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called, itís nice there in the English

Bible, ìuncircumcision by the Jews .î Remember God gives to Abraham the right of

circumcision to set apart his people, and the males would be circumcised, and those slaves who were added in would be

circumcised, and you either circumcised or you werenít circumcised.

Here the word in English is ìuncircumcision ,î but deridedly called by the Jews, and

the Greek word is ìthe foreskin .î Weíre the circumcised, theyíre the foreskins.

Now, it was a good division, but the Jews had torqued it.

The big picture though is, we are far away from Israel, and thereís a divide even among the

people.

Iím far from Israel, the Israelites donít like me, what am I going to do?

No Israel, no salvation.

No Israel, no special revelation.

No Israel, which is Godís ordained salvation instrument, no heaven.

And so Paul says, ìI want you to remember .î And look at all the things he says to remember.

You could just go right down the list, right there in those two verses, and you would see

five things that we were not having for us.

While Romans 9 says the Israelites are given adoption of sons, and glory, and covenants, and the giving of law, and the

temple services.

We didnít have any of those.

Look, this is for all of us.

All of us as Gentiles, we were separated from Christ.

Christ, thatís the word for Messiah.

Thatís the Jewish word for Messiah.

We werenít close to the Jewish Messiah.

And by the way, Heís the only Messiah.

So if youíre not close to the Messiah, the Messiah in Hebrew, in Israel, youíre not having any

hope of salvation.

Without Christ, separate from no captain, no high priest, no prophet, no king, because the

Jews had Him, we didnít, we were separated.

And Paul wants to say, yes, dead in trespasses and sins, chapter 2, verse 1 and following, but also not close to anything

thatís going to give us hope.

Destitute of the knowledge of the Old Testament that talked about the Messiah would come the first time, and the Messiah would come the

second time.

No expectation of a Savior.

He goes on to show you how far away we were, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.

And again, if anybody that you know needs to hear the Gospel, you go share the Gospel with them.

You preach the Gospel to them.

You evangelize them.

If any person needed to be saved back in those days, it was not you, it was Israel.

And we werenít close to Israel.

Additionally, strangers to the covenant of promise.

We as Gentiles, our past, we werenít close to the Davidic covenant.

We didnít have the Abrahamic covenant details right before our eyes in the Hebrew manuscripts.

And when you look at the Abrahamic covenant, what do you see?

The promise to send the Messiah.

We were far from that.

We didnít know anything about it.

Acts 13, ìWe preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers .î Not

close.

What does he say there?

This is logically flowing from the first three.

Having no hope.

Israelís hope.

Israelís coming hope.

Nothing.

Whatís the opposite of hopeful?

Not a trick question.

Last week I got you the trick question.

Hopeless.

Weíre hopeless.

Not close to Israel.

Hopeless.

Weíre already dead in trespasses and sins and then we have no idea of what to do or what to do about it or could anything be done.

Galatians 3, ìAll the nations shall be blessed in you .î

Abraham.

Hopeless.

No Messiah, no hope.

Oh well, maybe thereís a little hope.

Iíll cross my fingers and hope that I make it across that threshold of death.

Maybe God, you know, I think Heís supposed to be immutable, means He doesnít change.

But maybe He changes a little bit.

And maybe Heíll change and be a little less holy on the day I die.

Maybe Heíll be a little less omniscient, a little less knowing of all things on the day I die.

Maybe that would be my hope, but itís all hopeless.

And look what it says there at the end, ìWithout God in the world .î You probably know that Greek word, ìWithout God .î A

-the -ist.

Theyíre without God.

Atheists.

Not even close.

1 Thessalonians 4, ìNot in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God .î

Every one of us, dead in sins and God forsaken and not close to knowing anything about God because we had

to be close to Israel.

And then we come from a desert to a gushing fire hydrant of blessings.

Dead in trespasses and sins, chapter 2 verse 4, ìBut God .î No hope, no God, no

covenants, no Israel, no special revelation.

Verse 13, ìBut now .î Oh, everything turns just like it did earlier.

ÌBut now in Christ, you who are once far off, Gentiles,

have been brought near by the blood of Christ .î Oh, this is so good.

Now we move to remember your peace.

Remember your past.

Okay, my past is not only chapter 2, 1 to 3, Iím dominated and doomed and dead, but also

Iím not close to anything that would give me any hope.

Except the Lord Jesus shows up now, and I said for my point here, remember your peace

for the command because Heís called that.

Itís interesting, look at chapter 2 verse 13 and 14, ìBut now in Christ Jesus, you who are

once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is our peace,

who made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of

hostility .î If youíre a Gentile, you had no Messiah of

Israel.

But now, if youíre a Gentile, no citizenship in Israel, but now, no hope, but now,

itís a dramatic change.

And thatís exactly what the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus does.

Now, in the old days, what youíd do is youíd think, okay, weíre far and weíre brought near.

And hereís the concept of the whole thing.

You go to the temple, and of course in the temple, and you probably have a picture of the temple in the back of your book,

the Bible, and youíve got the Holy of Holies, canít go in there except the high priest once a year.

Then youíve got the holy place, canít go in there.

And youíve got different courts, and you start going out a little bit.

Youíve got the court of the women.

Gentiles couldnít go in any of those courts because if they did, they would be killed.

There were signs up that we found actually archaeologically.

If you are a Gentile and you go past this sign, be ready to be killed.

So geographically, theyíre far away.

How close can you get to the temple?

How close can you get to God?

How close can you get to the holy place?

Answer, youíre far off.

And Paul is talking about that very thing.

And he says, but you can get close, not to the real temple, by the way thatís been destroyed at 70 AD.

But how do you get close to the triune God of Israel when youíre

far away?

What does the text say?

Have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

What does that mean, the blood?

Platelets?

Plasma?

What does it mean, the blood of Christ?

We talked about this in chapter 1.

It has nothing to do with red blood cells, white blood cells.

It has to do with a theological shorthand for vicious death,

bloody death, gory death, violent death.

Not everybody bleeds when they die.

You can die in a comfortable bed and just die of old age and thereís no blood.

But if there is blood, that should tell you something.

Something has happened.

And in this particular case, when you think about the blood of the lamb and the blood of the Passover lamb, I mean, can

you imagine just taking a little lamb into your home and loving that lamb and being kind to that

lamb and naming that lamb?

What would you name a lamb if you had a lamb to name?

Fluffy?

Snow White?

And youíd love that lamb.

You could start teaching that lamb little dog tricks.

Come, stay, go, sit, bite.

I used to say that to my dog, ìBite !î.

Then one day you realize, you know what?

There has to be a sacrifice for sins and the wages of sin is death.

And we can have a substitute, that little lamb that we love.

Just imagine the kids and the parents too, bawling their eyes out.

But itís better for that lamb to die than the children to die and the parents to die and those in the house that

would die, the nation to die.

And so when you see blood, itís just shorthand for Jesus.

He wasnít just living a life and died in old age.

They did this to Him.

We did this to Him.

The word blood is where we get our word, hemorrhage.

Thatís the Greek word, hematology.

So when we sing songs about thereís power in the blood, weíre not talking about thereís power in the blood to fight

leukemia.

Weíre talking about thereís power in the vicarious, vicious, sacrificial death of Jesus.

How much power is there?

Youíve got Jews and Gentiles.

Could they ever get along, circumcised, uncircumcised?

How could they ever get together?

And theyíre going to need to get together because God has always planned the Gentiles to also believe in this

God of Israel.

Violent death on the cross.

You can die without losing your blood, but if you see blood, youíre going to think violence.

And thatís exactly what it was.

Verse 14, ìHe Himself is our peace .î Heís called peace.

It doesnít say He Himself is called peace, although thatís true.

It doesnít say He made peace, although thatís true.

Heís our peace.

Itís just a good name for Jesus, peace.

Heís the Prince of Peace.

We call Him other names, the bread of life, resurrection and the life.

He is our peace.

And the text is in the original, He and nobody else.

Why do we preach at this church and why must you preach every Christian that thereís only one way of salvation?

The world hates it.

The world doesnít like it.

There are many ways to God.

By the way, between us, every religion does take you to God.

Thatís a true statement.

Every religion takes you to Godís judgment, because every religion says, ìDo something .î

And you think you can assuage Godís wrath by doing.

And unless itís perfect doing, entire doing, exact doing, itís impossible because of Adamís

sin.

But even if it theoretically was possible, it would have to be perfect doing.

And so you think, you know, youíre climbing up this ladder to see God and His judgment.

Thatís why Jesus is here, He and no other.

No help from anybody else.

The God -man alone.

And Heís our peace.

Heís our shalom.

Heís our wholeness.

Heís our fullness.

Hugh Latimer, who died for his faith hundreds of years ago, said, ìJesus is our preservation from

damnation.

Heís our comfort.

Heís our help, our remedy.

When we feed upon Him, then we shall have remission of our sins .î The same remission of

sins is the greatest and most comfortable thing that can be in the world.

What a more comfortable thing is this?

Your sins are forgiven.

And this proclamation is cried out daily by His preachers, which proclamation is the word of grace, the word of

comfort and consolation.

ÌFor like as sin is the most fearful and most horriblest thing in the world, so the most

comfortablest thing is the remedy against sin, the Lord Jesus .î

Heís the answer.

Heís our answer.

Micah 5, ìThis one will be our peace .î Not just an absence of war, like the Greeks

thought, but the presence of something, blessing.

And what did this great God do?

He made peace with God, of course, Romans 5.

But look at specifically here in verse 14, ìWho made both groups into one ?î How do you get

Gentiles and Jews to like each other?

And again, it wasnít just the Jews who called the Gentiles bad names.

The Gentiles called Jews bad names.

And by the way, if you were a Greek, and you were, therefore you were a Gentile, and you met other Gentiles who

werenít Greek, you were a Greek and they were a barbarian.

So even within the Gentiles they had hatred for one another.

How can these two groups be together in one?

And theyíre going to have to be, because we have worship services for both Gentiles and

Jews, because thereís only one God.

How did He do it?

Verse 14, do you notice?

He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.

Whatís the dividing wall?

Now you might be thinking, ìOh, that kind of reminds me of the curtain that was torn in the temple from top to bottom to give us access

to God, free access, not just the high priests, not just the priests, not just the men, not just the Levites, not

just the women, but Gentiles as well .î Thatís true, thatís back there, but here specifically, ìBy abolishing

the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that He might create

in Himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace, and might

reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, therefore killing the

hostility .î Okay, weíll have to make this simple, because time

is fleeting.

One of the things I love about preaching is I look down at my watch and Iím like, ìI just canít believe it, I just spoke for 38 minutes .î And if youíre listening and

youíre engaged, youíre like, ìWell, keep going, that seemed like it was fast .î Remember when I first started going to churches, Iím thinking,

ìOh man, I canít believe theyíre talking for more than 15 minutes of this sermon, Iím dying .î All of a sudden you get saved and youíre

like, ìI want to know the truth .î Godís law reflects His character.

Godís holy and just, and His law reflects that.

And if you think of the moral law, if you think of the Ten Commandments, those arenít abolished, those go on, and you see

almost every one of those Ten Commandments reiterated in the New Testament.

But God had something set up that what we might call ceremonial law.

I mean, the civil law, how does Israel work as a country?

Okay, well, weíre not thinking about that.

Moral law, Ten Commandments, Iím not thinking about that.

But God had other ceremonial laws, and those ceremonial laws did a lot of things, point to Jesus,

remind of sin.

But there are other ceremonial laws that just made people different.

I remember people would say, ìWell, you know, God really knew when He told the Jews, He knew

about trigonosis, and so therefore donít eat a lot of pork, because God already knew donít eat pork, trigonosis

.î Is that why God said donít eat pork?

God said donít eat pork to the Jews, because all the Gentiles are eating pork.

How do we make ourselves different?

Just like with the sign of circumcision, sign and seal of circumcision.

Everybody else just has a kid, and you Israelites on the eighth day, by the way, when

potassium K is at its highest for blood coagulation, circumcise your son.

Make them separate.

Everything about them is going to be different.

Thatís why when I go to the store and I go to the bread section and I see Ezekiel 4 bread.

You like Ezekiel 4 bread?

It tastes good, but youíre not any holier for eating it.

Youíre just putting yourself underneath the Old Covenant.

Iím just kidding.

By the way, go read Ezekiel 4 sometime when you get home today, because if itís real Ezekiel 4 bread, remember,

itís cooked over dung.

Somehow the marketers forgot that.

I donít know why.

Every person that says, ìWeíre going to go back to Old Testament diets ,î because thatís what God wants and Seventh -day Adventists

do, and all kinds of people running back to the Old Testament diets.

If you have diet issues and you want to eat certain foods, fine, but itís not a religious thing.

For the Jews, it was a religious thing, and it made them different.

You have to do this, we have to do that.

You can do whatever you want on Shabbat, on Saturday, we have to have all these feasts and regulations and things, and we

canít walk so far, we canít work.

It was all to say, ìYouíre different.

Youíre not like a pagan .î That was part of Godís program.

But that was like scaffolding.

Youíre going to build a building and then thereís some lumber outside so you can climb up, but when you finish the

job, you donít leave the scaffolding up, do you?

The scaffolding of circumcision, Sabbath feasts, food

laws, all the ceremonial law, the scaffolding was up there until this happens.

What do you mean this?

Until Jesus dies and brings both together.

Now I donít need to have all these separations because the ceremonial law has been fulfilled.

All the types pointing to Jesus, the shadows pointing to Jesus, the Old Testament pointing to Jesus.

Jesus is here, why do I need to go back here again to all this scaffolding?

Thatís the idea, the far and the near.

Do you see it right there in verse 13?

ÌFar off, been brought nearî because Heís our peace and He did it by abolishing verse 15,

the law of commandments and ordinances, because He wants to make one new man.

What else does He want to do, verse 16?

He might reconcile to both, Jew and Gentile, to God in one body through the

cross, therefore killing the hostility.

Side note, when you think about race baiting and race wars in this country,

you have to re -read Ephesians 2.

You have to re -read this and think, okay, what did the Lord Jesus, the

Jewish God -man, what did He do?

And if part of the reason why He died is to make the people come together in the church,

when people want to divide others, I think to myself, thatís not what Jesus Christ does,

because He brings people together.

Thatís what the blood of the cross did.

So when people do the opposite of Jesus and want to split based on race, theyíre not doing what

Christ wants, theyíre doing what anti -Christ does.

Itís anti -Christ spirit to do that.

I think this is what God has done.

All kinds of people, Jews and Gentiles, who no longer are Jews and Gentiles, but the

new man, the body.

Remember what has to happen in the old days?

The Jewish people who were Christians said, you Gentiles, you can be a believer, but first youíve got to get circumcised.

First youíve got to do this, first youíve got to do that.

You become a Jew first, then you can get to heaven.

No, thatís wrong.

Everything about this is wrong.

Jesus is our peace.

Abolished.

Of course, when Jesus said, ìI did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, I didnít

come to abolish them, but to fulfill them .î That scaffolding of the ceremonial law is done.

Well, verse 16 it says, ìHeís going to kill the hostility .î Very interesting language, and only the Lord Jesus

could bring a hostile person to become a friend.

And now we come to the very last section, verse 17, ìAnd he came and preached peace to

you who are far off, and peace to those who are near .î Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait.

What do you mean?

Itís out of order.

He came and preached peace to you far, and peace to those who are near.

This is the way it should go.

You first preach to people, then they get along.

Then theyíre part of the body.

Then Jews and Gentiles are no longer.

Here itís Jews and Gentiles no longer.

Blood of Christ, Jews and Gentiles no longer.

Now preach peace.

Whatís going on?

Super simple answer.

Jesus has apostles, and now you preach to other people.

Thatís all Heís doing.

He came and preached peace.

How did Jesus come and preach peace to the church at Ephesus?

Answer?

Through Paul.

And then He has the final reminder, verses 18 and following.

ÌRemember your past, remember your peace, and now remember your position in the future

.î What Lloyd Jones called one of the most spectacular verses in all the Bible, verse 18,

ìThrough Jesus we have access in one Spirit to the Father .î

Trinitarian discussion right there, right?

Trinitarian discussion.

How are we going to get into the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament?

You canít get in.

How are we going to get in?

Saunter right on in to the thrice holy God?

I mean God is a consuming fire.

But Christ died for our sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might not make us happy,

wealthy, that He might bring us to God.

Because of Jesus we have access.

Do you know any time in the world, in the hospital room or riding on a bicycle or anything in

between, you have access to God the Father now because of the work of the Son through the Spirit?

And you can just say, ìHelp .î You can say, ìI thank you

.î There was no entree before.

This is language of access of, and Iíve said this before a few times here, but now that Iím getting older I guess I

have the COVID fog.

Sometimes Iím in my study, my office, and somebody just walks in the door.

And Iím thinking itís either Kim, Maddy, Grace, Luke, Haley.

They can just walk in any time they want, canít they?

They can saunter right on in.

And other people just walk in.

Iím like, ìWhat if I was blowing my nose or something?

I mean come on, this is like my office .î

I said, ìJust next time just knock a little bit, would you ?î Iím just going to

saunter right on in, kind of Conrad McGregor, just walk right up into heaven.

Hey God!

Itíd be utter nuclear winter.

And not just for McGregor, but for all of us.

But now both Gentile and Jew can go to their dadís office, walk right

on in.

Gentiles donít have to do anything extra.

Jews donít have to proselytize to Gentiles.

You just walk right in.

And literally the word here is, ìTo bring before the face .î Right in the face.

You donít want the face of God if Heís frowning.

But if Heís smiling at the work of the Lord Jesus, ìThe Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the Lord make His face what ?î And because of

Jesus, Heís smiling upon you.

Youíre like, ìYeah, but you donít know what I did this last week .î I know, but God does.

And dear Christian, thatís already paid for by the blood of Christ.

And then he goes into verses 19 and following.

And basically what heís saying here is, ìWhile there used to be a physical temple, now you Christian

are the temple.

While we used to be not a citizen, youíre a citizen.

While it used to be a growing structure just for the Jews, now itís

all of us .î And thatís what heís doing here.

Weíre all put together in the holy temple of God.

Verse 19, ìSo then you are no longer strangers and aliens .î Thatís a lot different than

verses 11 and 12.

ÌBut you are fellow citizens with the saints, both Jew and Gentile .î They donít have extra seats,

better seats, special seats, low seats.

ÌAnd members of the household of God .î You are in Godís house.

By the way, if youíre in my house and youíre my kid, you get all the blessings of a son or daughter.

I protect you, I provide for you, I care for you, Iím concerned about you, you belong to mom and I,

you have access into my presence at any time you want.

Thereís intimate access, Abba, Father.

And here how much more?

This is exactly Paulís point.

And by the way, if I can saunter in, and my Jewish friend can saunter in, I a Gentile, he

or she a Jew, and weíre both part of the household, what does that do for Jews and Gentiles in terms of

getting along?

If different skin color people can all walk in because theyíre all sons and daughters, how does that not affect just our

vertical relationship to God, but horizontally?

Thatís why when people want to split because of race, it is exactly opposite of the work of Christ and this passage.

Think like a Jew for a second, and youíre thinking about the temple.

Whatís in a temple?

What do you need to make a temple?

You need a foundation, youíre going to need a cornerstone, and youíre going to need some building blocks.

And what does he say here?

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone,

in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

You are the temple.

In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

Spirit.

More Trinitarian theology right there.

Paul says, while thereís a vertical dimension of my

relationship with God, because of the Lord Jesus, now thereís a horizontal dimension, and it means Jews and

Gentiles have equal access.

And when you remember that, it should make you think, Iím so thankful.

Are you thankful you get to go to heaven?

We had a funeral right here.

Judy Bowmanís body was right here yesterday.

And truth is the truth.

And the truth is, Judy Bowman didnít deserve to go to heaven.

Did you know that?

My mom died.

She didnít deserve to go to heaven.

Nobody deserves to go to heaven.

But all those who trust in Christ get to go on the work of another whoís peace.

Judy Bowmanís in heaven because she trusts the promises of God.

And God even gave her that faith.

This is a truth designed for us to go, ìOne day Iíll be in that box .î.

Youíll be in that box one day.

If youíre here and youíre not a Christian, youíll be in that box.

And then what?

Then itís too late.

But while you have breath, you see, ìWhat kind of God is like this?

I think God should be against me .î.

And Romans 8 says, ìIf God is for us, who can be against us ?î.

Whatís the kind of God who, like Luther said when I started the service, whatís the kind of God who loves sinners?

Whatís the kind of God who says, ìThe vilest offender who truly believes .î.

If youíre not a believer, you can be the most vilest offender and truly believe.

And then thereís hope.

And then we comfort one another with the words of 1 Thessalonians when we bury Judy Bowman because sheís more

alive right now than sheís ever been.

And sheís in the presence of her Savior.

Ephesians chapter 2, if you had to summarize it, verse 4, ìBut Godî, verse 13,

ìBut now .î.

Letís pray.

Thank you Father for your Word.

Thank you for what youíve done in Christ Jesus, applied to us by the Holy Spirit.

I pray for each person here that they might be thankful today.

We have all kinds of trials, yet we can still say ìBut Godî.

And we can also say ìBut nowî.

In Jesusí name, Amen.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West

Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of

Godís Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6.

Weíre right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone

at 508 -835 -3400.