The Mystery of the Gospel

Today's Bible reading is from Ephesians 3 .1 -6.

If you'd join me there. Ephesians 3 .1

-6 and please stand when you have that reading. Hear ye this morning the

Word of the living God. For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you

Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

How the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly.

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the

Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the

Gospel. You may be seated. Father, as we approach you this morning by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we have this sure foundation, this assurance that we can now enter not only into your holy presence, but also to receive insight into the mystery of your will, the mystery that you set forth in redemptive history through the prophets, through the covenants.

And Lord, you have now manifested by means of the apostles and prophets in these latter days, giving us the insight into the unfolding of thy purpose by bringing forth in the fullness of time the

Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin, to live the life that we could not live, die the death that we deserve, was raised again on glory, and is now ascended at the right hand of the

Father, where He now brings peace to all nations, all peoples, both

Jew and Gentiles, by His shed blood, making them one. Praise be unto the one true and triune

God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We thank you for the unraveling of the mystery in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, I don't know about you. Maybe some of you here enjoy a good mystery reading, a mystery book.

Maybe you like watching mystery movies. You know, I'm not much of a mystery reader or watcher myself.

Never really got into that genre of literature or movies. But I would beg to reason with you this morning that one of the reasons why people love the

Marvel movies, okay, you know what I'm talking about, right? Hulk, Captain America, Doctor Strange.

The reason why people love these Marvel characters and watching them on the big screen today is because there's an element of interconnectedness amongst all the movies, which is not something we had seen beyond trilogies in the realm of cinema.

Now, when we look at all these, there's over 20 films of Marvel movies and superheroes, and they all serve to connect one another, and they have this overarching narrative, and that's one of the reasons why people love these movies because they love seeing those

Easter eggs. They love seeing that mystery starting to unravel, and that's why almost every single time a

Marvel movie comes out, people stay at the movie theater during the credits. I mean, how funny is that?

Usually when the movie ends and the credits start, everyone usually bolts out of the theater, but people wait, and they wait to see the mystery.

What lies ahead beyond the credits, beyond the names?

Is there another Easter egg? Is there a hint? Is there a mystery that we can unravel for the next movie?

The same is even of a greater truth and degree to Holy Scripture.

You see, all those things that we look for as human beings, patterns, mysteries, fulfillments,

Easter eggs, these are all things that we find innate in Holy Scripture.

From Genesis to Revelation, there was one overarching narrative of God's Word that God Almighty has spoken, and He has given us a revelation of Himself, of His heart, of His character, of His nature, of His being.

He has given us this mystery that is unraveling throughout all of human history, and we have now been given great insight into the mystery of God, namely even the gospel of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Should we not then be of the utmost care to pay even more attention to the preaching and teaching of God's Word so that we can receive insights, revelation into God's marvelous mystery in His Word?

We ought to be even more excited when we open up the Bible than when we put in the movie disc or press the play button on Netflix when we watch a

Marvel movie. We should be even more excited when we approach the greatest mysteries of humankind here in His Word.

Paul begins this chapter after in chapter one giving us an understanding, a preview, a taste of God's unfolding mystery, of His unraveling will, how

God is going to fulfill and bring all things into Christ Jesus by being the one who is supreme over all, and that He does so through election.

In chapter two, he begins to demonstrate to us the fact of where Gentiles came from and that they were once dead, lost, and their trespasses.

And then he says, but like all of us, including the Jews in that scenario, we've all fallen short. We've all sinned.

We've all missed the mark. We were all children of wrath, objects heading towards eternal separation from God.

But then he gives us the good news. But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ.

And it is by grace we've been saved through faith, not of ourselves, not something that we can commend ourselves for, not something that we can earn or we can work for or a prize that we win, but instead it is by grace you've been saved to become

God's worksmanship created in Christ Jesus. He then sums up that idea in chapter two, verses 11 to 22, when he says this is all for the purpose of God building in Himself one new man, one new creation, a new, living, dynamic, holy temple unto the

Lord, namely the saints of Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile.

Chapter three now, Paul is beginning to unravel even more this mystery into plain language so that this mystery that was once hidden can now be perceived and understood by all.

And this is the mystery that he unravels. And starting in verse one, he says, for this reason,

I, Paul, so if there's any doubts in your mind about who the author of this book is, look at the penmanship.

For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you

Gentiles. He says, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

If you're following along in today's teaching in the insert, the Apostle Paul was both a prisoner and a steward of Christ on behalf of the

Gentiles. Here's what I want you to know about the Apostle Paul this morning. Paul was a man who lived out his convictions.

He was a man who lived out his convictions. Think about your life. Think about your faith, where you stand in terms of the things that you believe in.

How willing are you to stand principally on the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints, namely the

Gospel? Even when times get difficult, even when you are in the minority, even when times and pressures and political forces come against you, will you stand principally on the

Gospel? Paul was a man of principle who lived out his convictions.

He didn't have a personal life and then a spiritual life. Those two things were never divided.

Often today in today's culture, in today's modern church, we have many Christians who profess

Jesus on Sunday. They may even go to church. They may have even been baptized.

Maybe they're even members of a church. But throughout the week, they live as if they are secular.

That is to say this, that their values from Monday to Saturday don't always line up with what they have heard, received, and even preached on Sunday.

We see this in the culture today, for instance. Not to be controversial, not to be political.

This is not a place of politics. This is a place of the kingdom. Ours is a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

But in the world that we live in today, there are many professing Christians who believe that abortion is absolutely fine.

There's nothing wrong with the woman's right to choose what happens to her own body.

The irony of that being, of course, that the little life that's inside of her is not her own body.

For if she received an abortion, it would be her who died, not the baby. Nonetheless, many

Christians feel that it is okay to have diverging opinions in terms of what they have a conviction on on Sunday and what they think is practical throughout the rest of their life or week.

Friends, ones whose values don't always line up to the scriptures, who claim to be believers, are either misled in terms of their belief in Christ and who

Jesus is, or they are a worldly Christian, someone who has more of the world in them than they have

Christ in them. And we have to be careful as Christians. The Bible says, do not love the world.

These warnings are not there for any other reason but the fact that we can be contaminated by the world.

Friends, it's very important that we live according to our convictions, that we live according to our convictions from God's word.

And Paul was such an example of this. Because in verse one, he says, I, Paul, a prisoner.

A prisoner. You know why he was a prisoner? It wasn't because he was doing everything that Rome wanted him to do.

It wasn't because he was on the inside of things, but rather he was on the outside. He was a prisoner, he was imprisoned many times throughout his life in ministry because of Christ Jesus.

Because of Christ Jesus. That's why he was imprisoned. Because of his faith in Jesus, because of the work and the convictions that he had.

He didn't separate his convictions from his personal life, his personal life was not separated from his personal convictions in Jesus.

They were all one. And what he believed, he therefore proclaimed.

And what he proclaimed, he also lived. And that's the challenge for us today as Christians. To believe in God's word, to live it out, lest we become hypocrites in the eyes of the world, and that we also stand in the ground that is unshaking, unmovable, the firm rock of Christ Jesus himself, so that no matter the circumstances, whether it be imprisonment, ridicule, whether it be forces coming against you in the political sphere, or in the sphere of influence of friends and family, we stand on our convictions like Paul.

We don't back away from imprisonment, but rather we count it all joy when we can suffer on account of Christ's name.

And let me tell you, Paul found it his joy to suffer on account of Christ's name.

It was his joy. Friends, let it be your joy when you suffer on account of Christ's name.

When the world calls you names and bigots, and they legislate things that are immoral, and yet we can stand firm on the promises of the gospel.

Paul was both a prisoner and a steward. Paul not only saw himself as a prisoner for the cause of Christ, he also saw himself as a steward, someone who had responsibility, someone who had been entrusted with much.

Therefore, his convictions, his life was principled in such a way that he was able to carry out his responsibilities no matter the cost.

No matter the cost. You know, this week has been an interesting one for myself and for many in the life of the church.

One of our pro -life ministries has gotten some attention in the media and attention in the world, and we are unashamed to say that we stand on the principle of life, that life is sacred, life is precious.

God has ordained life in this world, and we ought to protect it. We also understand this, that one of the criticisms that we as Christians can receive when we're talking about this issue is something that one person, one critic said to me this week, and said, well, what are you doing about the men?

What are you doing about all the men who are just getting women pregnant, and then you just leave? And I said, man, that's, you're right.

That's an issue. What are we doing about it? We're preaching Christ. We're preaching

Jesus. And in the preaching of his word, in the power and the proclamation of the

Spirit, men learn to be men. Men learn to take on responsibility, not to run from it, because the world, as is even explained and expressed in the doctrine of abortion today, is the escape of responsibility.

It's to lay aside our duty as mothers and as fathers, and let's just terminate the issue, rather than be responsible over life.

We are teaching men and women and children to be responsible stewards of the grace of God.

That is the answer that the world desperately needs. It's God's grace, and it's the stewardship of God's grace.

And we ought to examine ourselves this morning. Are we being good stewards of the grace of God that has come in Jesus Christ?

Paul says in verse two, actually beginning in verse one, for this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ, use on behalf of you

Gentiles. Paul's ministry was directed towards the Gentiles of the first century church, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship, there's that word again, of God's grace that was given to me for you.

This is an incredible opportunity that Paul's opening up to demonstrate in his own life that he's both a prisoner and a steward of God's grace.

Again, Paul was in prison several times and is reminding the believers in Ephesus that he has written to many of them in chains, and yet that the chains did not stop him from being a steward of the gospel of grace.

The word steward here is the same that is used in Ephesians one, verse 10, where it talks about God bringing all things under the administration and the administration of times to bring all things under the headship and lordship of Jesus.

The word steward or administration basically means the administration or responsibility of a household.

I want you to know this this morning, that stewardship is a gift from God. It's a gift.

When God gives you something to steward, whether it's your studies at school, whether it's your home life, whether it's a spouse, whether it's children, whether it's responsibilities at the workplace, stewardship, responsibility is a blessing.

It is in fact such a blessing that God ingrained it into the creation narrative when he gave man the dominion of the garden.

And he said, go spread this garden to the whole world. Bless and be multiply and fruitful.

So incredible and so powerful is this idea of stewardship and responsibility that is baked in even to the narrative of the creation story, but also into our redemptive story as Christians.

We are stewards of this gospel, of this good news. Therefore, we have to do all that we can to not only believe it, but to live it, because stewardship is a gift from the

Almighty. Now again, would you be willing to suffer injustices, even change for the fulfillment of God's calling and election in your life?

Will you be a good steward of the grace of God even in the face of adversity? Such perseverance that is required and necessary is born only out of true conversion and surrender to the will of God.

I want you, if you can, turn to Acts chapter 26. I want to examine very quickly Paul's conversion story as he accounts it and retells it here in Acts 26.

Starting in verse 14. It says, and when he had fallen to the ground,

I heard a voice. This is Saul recounting his conversion experience. I heard a voice saying to me in the

Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? The Lord said,

I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise, stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which

I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the

Gentiles to whom I'm sending you, to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

This is Paul's conversion story. And Paul saw that glorious appearing of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He was appointed. Jesus told him to rise and stand upon your feet.

That's to take responsibility. That's to take stewardship. You can't take stewardship, you can't take responsibility if you're laying on your back.

And so friends, and what Jesus goes on to say is that he's delivering Paul to become the messenger to the

Gentiles, which is exactly what Paul says in Ephesians chapter three, verses one and two, that he is a prisoner, a steward of Christ on behalf of the

Gentiles. He then goes on to say that his mission, Paul's purpose, his mission to being sent to the

Gentiles is to open their eyes. Friends, that's our call.

Our call today as Christians, as proclaimers of God's kingdom, as proclaimers of this incredible gospel good news is to help open the eyes of the blind, whether they be atheists, agnostic, secularists,

Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, every single person whom

God has sent us to and has brought into our path, we ought to make it our mission to open their eyes by the grace of God so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God and that they may receive forgiveness of sins in a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

What an incredible work we've all been called to, no less the

Apostle Paul personally when he was called by the Lord Jesus Christ in his conversion and in his surrender to the will of God.

And God used Paul mightily, did he not? And so the Lord can also use anyone here mightily in wonderful ways if we heed the call, take responsibility, be good stewards of the grace of God and God can do an incredible work.

Back in our main text in Ephesians chapter three, the word of God says in verse three of Ephesians three, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly.

If you're following along in the insert by divine revelation, the word revelation is an interesting one.

It's also a way of translating that word as apocalypse and that sounds scary, does it not?

The book of Revelation in times of antiquity in the English language was often called the book or the apocalypse of St.

John the Revelator. It sounds scary, sounds apocalyptic. But the beautiful thing about that word apocalypse, it's really a simple meaning that's not very scary at all.

The word apocalypse or revelation, simply think of a curtain that is on a stage and now that curtain is being opened.

That's what revelation means. It means there's a opening, there's a light that's shining, there's something that's being illuminated, something that was once held in darkness is now being illuminated.

That's what the word revelation means. And it was by divine revelation that Paul was given insight into God's mystery.

Paul again is demonstrating that his insight does not originate from his flesh or intellect, but it is indeed by divine inspiration.

Understand that again, Paul was a Pharisee. He was an elitist Jew who had been taught from infancy that there was only one chosen race.

And it was the Jewish people. That the Gentiles were in fact filthy animals and even dogs in the sight of God's eyes.

And yet he is here in Ephesians 3 proclaiming that he has now received insight, revelation into God's mystery.

The mystery being of course, how God has now made both Jew and Gentile one through the shed blood of the cross.

That the Gentiles, those whom he once saw as filthy, as degenerate, as separated from God can now also be brought near by the same

Messiah that he was anticipating and waiting for. Paul has a complete change, a complete 180 as we saw from his testimony.

It was the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ himself that persuaded him, that changed him, that transformed him to be a

Pharisee of Pharisees, an elitist Jew, to being a proclaimer of God's grace to all men,

Jew and Gentile alike. And this way the Bible says that God is no longer a respecter of men.

He doesn't care if you are Jewish. He doesn't care if you're Greek. He doesn't care if you're Roman. He doesn't care if you're a barbarian.

He doesn't care if you're from Asia. He doesn't care if you're from North America. He wants all men everywhere to be his possession, to be his treasured possession, to become part of the family of God.

And that's what we proclaim to you this morning. That regardless of your background, regardless of your pedigree, regardless of who your parents were or what generations before you did, you can have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

You can have peace, even today in your personal life, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is in fact the unraveling of God's mystery himself.

The Bible says in Ephesians 1 .9, it says this when we went over this several weeks ago, it says,

Paul says, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.

Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 talks a lot about this mystery, this mystery that's unraveling, that was set into motion, set forth in Christ.

And Paul's now giving us the outcome of that sacred mystery, giving us the insight that he received by means of revelation.

God's word is divinely inspired. It wasn't

Paul's opinions, it wasn't Paul's thoughts that he was merely putting down on paper, but instead,

God spoke through him by means of the Holy Spirit, producing for us the infallible word of Scripture.

And so we see again, by divine revelation, Paul was given insight into God's mystery. Make sure you write that in there.

This mystery, the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, how was

God going to bless the nations by means of the Abrahamic covenant? How was God gonna bring forward the fulfillment of the promises that he made to Abraham in which he said to him that through you, all the nations shall be blessed?

Well, this mystery brings us to the mystery of God in Christ. In Colossians 2, verse two, it says that the secret, this mystery is in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This is the gospel mystery. And the mystery of the gospel has been made known and clear to us today.

The gospel being this, that all have sinned through Adam and in Adam, and in your own flesh, we've all fallen short of the mark.

There was no one righteous, the Bible says. No, not even one. And yet, in his infinite wisdom and mercy,

God set forth his son, Jesus Christ, in the fullness of time, born of the virgin, lived a holy, blameless, perfect life, the life that you could not live even if you lived 1 ,000 lives.

He died the death that we deserved. Died nailed to a cross next to two thieves.

Was buried in a lowly tomb. And on the third day, God raised him from the dead.

We don't just celebrate that on Easter. We celebrate it every Lord's Day, and every day that we have life and being, we have life and being in ourselves because Jesus lives.

And because he lives, he can now intercede on our behalf as our great and wonderful high priest.

And it is through faith in him and in him alone by means of the grace that he offers through the shed blood of his cross that you and I can have everlasting life and fullness of joy even today.

This is good news. And this gospel good news is for both Jew and Gentile.

It is both for people of all ages, both genders. It is for any person who has come into this world.

The gospel offers us hope. And this is what Paul is trying to break down in regard to the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the gospel.

He says in verses four through five, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the

Spirit. You're following along in today's insert. The mystery was not made fully known until the age of the apostles by the

Holy Spirit. You see, God found it fit to administer the revelation of his sacred mystery to the apostles of Christ by means of the inspiration work of the

Holy Spirit. Both Paul and the apostle Peter are both in agreement on the mystery and the means by which the prophetic word came.

If you would turn to 1 Peter 1, 1

Peter 1 in verses 10 through 13, the apostle

Peter writes this, concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully.

Do you notice the similarities between Paul and Peter in terms of the description of the salvation that was once hidden now manifested to us?

He says in verse 11, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

What a blessed time we live in, brothers and sisters, where both Jew and Gentile can sit together and read

Holy Scripture and see the glorious fulfillment of Bible prophecy fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And how did this word come? How was the Spirit of Christ indicating the subsequent sufferings and glories of Christ?

It was by means of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, to which even the angels long to look into.

You know, we take for granted. We think that all prophecy is so easy to understand now because we have the

New Testament. We say, oh, well, Isaiah 53, duh, that's Jesus, the suffering servant, the one who would come and die for his people, who'd be a sin offering, who'd be raised from death.

Yeah, that's Jesus. I mean, it's easy for us to say that in hindsight, but it's only because we live no longer in the shadow, but now in the reality, in the substance of the truth of the fulfillment of Jesus Christ.

We take for granted that even angels who could look and pour over the Scriptures themselves could not even come to a full realization of the glories that would come in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Even angels long to look into these things, friends. And here we are, blessed and privileged to know its fulfillment and its purpose.

I want you, if you can, now go to 2 Peter. I wanna share this other Scripture with you, which is a great

Scripture that I would love for you to commit to memory. As it speaks of the nature of God's inspired word in 2

Peter chapter one, verse 20 and 21, Peter also speaking of the testimony and witness that he received of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 20, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. So how did we get Scripture? How did we receive the prophetic word?

Was it through the craftiness of man? Was it through the inventions of Paul?

Was it through the inventions and will of man? No, no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. How incredible is that? That God's inspired word rings true even today, and we can trust in the prophetic word, we can trust in the mystery of God as he's revealed it to us by means of his apostles and his prophets by the inspiration of the

Spirit. This is good news, brothers and sisters. Again, God found it fit to administer the revelation of his sacred mystery by means of the apostles through the

Spirit. And Paul and Peter are both in agreement as to how and the means by which the prophetic word came.

Sometimes in liberal scholarship, they try to pit Peter and Paul against each other, and they say, oh, they had competing gospels, competing worldviews.

This could not be further from the truth. Look at how concise both Paul and Peter are in affirming the prophetic word as to how it came and how we receive the mystery of the gospel.

In Ephesians three and verse six, it says this mystery, this is it, this is the climax.

This is the third act of the movie. This mystery is that the

Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Now, I get it. You live in 2022, and you may be thinking to yourself, well, what's the big deal here?

Okay, Jew and Gentiles living together in harmony and all right, so what? Friends, the only reason we can even begin to have that type of mentality is because we don't know how bad things were, and it's always those who are most blessed and privileged that when they look back, they think, well, it couldn't have been that bad until they themselves suffered persecution or hardship.

Think of for a moment of even the struggles of our nation today. This nation that we live in has a complicated history of race.

Race is usually the elephant in the room. It doesn't need to be. Race is sometimes something that is difficult for us as a people, as Americans, to come to grips with because in our own history, we have this narrative, we have this horrific history of having two people groups pitted against each other, one who were free, one who were oppressed and enslaved, and that history has kind of manifested itself even in these latter days today in ways that are horrendous and divisive and just ugly.

And when we look at the issues of race today, we can see that how this gospel word, this mystery can bless us even today because God can make anyone, whether they're black or white,

Asian or Hispanic, regardless of their background, they can bring, He can bring peace to them by means of the shed blood of His cross.

That's peace. Don't you wanna see peace in your day? Don't you wanna see those tensions that are in our nation that exist racially, that racially charged tensions evaporate?

They can, they can. And it's not through capitalism versus socialism or communism or this or that.

It's through the gospel. The gospel offers us a means and a way that we can be forgiven of our sins and where we can also receive the power to forgive others who have sinned against us.

That's the power of the gospel, to bring people together, not to pull them apart. And that's why this mystery of God bringing both

Jews and Gentiles together is so powerful is because God has the power to bring people, warring tribes together and make them not only friends or nice to each other, but He makes them family.

And that's the family of God. You, beloved, are members of the family of God, which is why

He again says, Paul says this in verse six, this mystery is that the Gentiles, you who were once far off, you who were once dogs, you who were once not part of the promises, cut off from the covenant promises, you are now fellow heirs.

That means that you are to be, you are ones who have the privilege of inheriting the promises, inheriting the magnificent promises in hopes of the glory of God, members of the same body, not similar bodies, not like bodies, but the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

That's why when we come together on the Lord's day or we see each other during the week, we can actually address each other as brother or sister, because in Christ, we are truly brothers and sisters, regardless of who your mother was and who your father was, regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of where your background is, we can approach each other as true family, because we're members of the family of God.

This is part of the mystery of God's incredible gospel, the mystery that is at work even in you today, and we have the privilege of carrying this message, this gospel, to show the world what true

Christian love and unity looks like. Let's put the world to shame and show them what it really looks like to be part of the family of God.

The last part of that teaching in the answer, the mystery is that the Gentiles are now elect.

I want you to write that in there. They're now elect. Those who were once unelected, those who were once not part of the promises now have the ability to be elect as heirs, partaking of the

Abrahamic promises. We don't have time to go into these verses, but in Galatians 3, verse 79 and verses 28 and 29, the

Apostle Paul demonstrates how we Gentiles are truly offspring, children of Abraham, and it's through faith in Jesus Christ, that in Jesus, there is no

Jew or Greek, no male or female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus.

True unity can be achieved and is indeed within our grasp if we hold on fast to the convictions that we have received through the implanted word and by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, even our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let me pray. Lord Jesus, you indeed did the impossible.

You brought together men and women, different age groups, different races, different backgrounds, and you have made them family, family, even members of the family of God.

Lord, words fail to describe the immeasurable greatness of your grace and of your love and your kindness expressed through Jesus Christ.

It is through our Lord that we can receive peace, even peace today, and so Lord, I pray that those of us here who have not truly received that peace, that unity of the faith, that they would find themselves this morning convicted, convicted by the

Holy Spirit and by the preaching of thy word, that they would say, I wanna be a child of God.

I wanna be a member of the household. I wanna be part of the family of God.

Lord Jesus, may you grant them faith and repentance, regeneration by the powerful working of your spirit.

Lord, that every man and woman and child would come to realization of their sins in which we have all fallen short of that glorious image.

And Lord, that they may receive the greatest gift that you have given, even the gift of your own son,

Jesus Christ, and that by faith in him, they can receive the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit may be pleased to administer unto them the gift of salvation and that they too can become members, family, children of the most high

God. Lord, we thank you for this great gift of salvation. We thank you for saving us and making us members.

We thank you, God, for all that you've done and all that you will do. To you, Father, Son, and Spirit belongs all the glory, praise, and adoration.