God's Glory in Our Unity (Ephesians 2, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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Let's pray. Gracious God, we pray that you would speak through us.

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Lord, we pray that somehow you, the God of the universe, would use a fallen person like me, a sinner, to deliver your holy words to your people.

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And then that each one of us would take these words to the ends of the earth. Speak, Lord God, through your word.

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And God, I confess, I am not adequate to be the mouthpiece on this subject.

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I tremble at the responsibility, but I trust in the God who speaks.

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I trust your word, Lord God, to speak to the issue of race and racism, to issues that affect the church and the world.

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And I pray in Jesus' name that you would be glorified in your church, this local church in particular,

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God, that this would be a place that reflects the glory of the

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Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, equal ontologically.

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Equal and yet diverse. Unity in diversity.

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Lord, we pray unity and diversity in this church, Lord God. Let us reflect the diversity that is the body of Christ in this area of the world.

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But to do so dwelling in unity, in Jesus' name. Amen. We are in a study, just three weeks, called

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Glory in the Church. Glory in the church. We've looked from Ephesians chapter one, and today we'll be in Ephesians chapter two.

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But the key theme verse for the study is Ephesians chapter three, verse 21.

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It's where the phrase glory in the church comes from. In context, Paul says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church.

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And in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever, amen. Last week, we talked about how when we come to worship, we come to speak the words of God and to hear the word of God, to baptize new believers, to take communion, as we just did moments ago.

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In all these things, God is glorified in our worship. But this morning, we move on to part two of the series, and that refers to the glory of God in our unity.

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In our unity. Turn with me to Psalm 133, one of my favorite psalms for a number of reasons.

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Psalm 133 is only three verses long. It's poignant, it's powerful.

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I consider it a little bit funny because of my own strange way of looking at things. But read with me, follow along in Psalm 133.

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We're looking at the ESV today. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

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It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.

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It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, live forevermore.

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The psalm is about unity in the congregation. It is good and pleasant when brothers and sisters dwell in unity.

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The psalm is about our unity. The comparison is made to oil dripping from the head and down the beard.

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And I think of how my wife looks at me when I have oil dripping off my beard at the dinner table, at Cheesecake Factory or someplace like that.

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It's not considered pleasant. It's not a beautiful thing. But recognize that this oil is a different kind of oil.

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It's not referring to oil that you eat and dribble down your collar. It's referring to the anointing oil, where Aaron, the priest, is anointed with holy oil to set him apart for the glorification of God.

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And that's why it's beautiful. He's a mediator that stands between God and man. This priest, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, that's the glory and that's the beauty.

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But see, it's the priest that mediates blessing and brings unity. Fallen sons and daughters of Adam, like us, cannot go to a holy

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God. But through the mediation of Jesus, we come to God. And each one who comes are then brought together in unity.

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That's the beauty of Psalm 133. So turn with me now to Ephesians chapter two.

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God's glory in our unity. Today we're going to move quickly through a great chapter of Scripture.

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I would love to spend time preaching a sermon on one or two verses at a time. And at some point we will do that.

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We'll do an exegetical study through the book of Ephesians. Here we're going to take more of a broader picture.

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The chapter, the second chapter of Ephesians. Because we're doing more, almost a topical study on this idea of glory in the church.

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And here the emphasis, what we're looking at is the unity that comes from the gospel. The tearing down of the dividing wall between people.

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So in Ephesians chapter two, just follow along with me. I want you to look for how it is that the gospel, the work of Christ on the cross, brings people together.

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And particularly we're going to look at the subject of race. Now the racial division that existed in the first century, at the time when the gospel began to go forward, was between Jew and Gentile.

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And there were religious elements to that distinction between Jew and Gentile. So there's not a perfect correspondence between what we see today and what was happening then.

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But there's enough of an overlap that the application of those principles speaks to us and the racial situation that we run into in America today.

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Divisions we see between black and white, Hispanic, Native American, all different races living in a melting pot.

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That is the United States of America. These principles can apply and speak to us today.

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So follow along, we're just gonna read through for the first part, Ephesians chapter two. And you were dead.

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In the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

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And were by nature children of wrath, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

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But God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that at one time you

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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.

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But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were 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 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, thereby killing the hostility.

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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

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For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father.

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus 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 spirit, amen.

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Lord bless the reading of your word and the preaching of your word. In this chapter, we really have two sections, verses one to 10 and then 11 to 23.

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And in both cases, you have a picture of before and after, something that's before and something that's after.

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You'll see in infomercials, commercials on TV, weight loss products, exercise routines that show you a picture of a man before and after or some skin product where before a person is very wrinkly and then after they use that product, their skin is like a baby's skin.

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Before and after. In this case, we have a before and after picture of us dead in sin and made alive in Christ.

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Before dead, the picture is of a graveyard dead in sin to resurrected, given new life and now in the throne room.

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Before the graveyard, after the throne room. A huge distinction.

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Let's look at chapter two, verses one to three quickly. We were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked.

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Well, when we were walking this way, what were the enemies of our soul that caused us to be dead?

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What was the problem? What were we facing? The answer is threefold. The world, the flesh, the devil are three great enemies.

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The world, the flesh, the devil. You're following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil.

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The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, there's the enemies of our soul.

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But as we begin to think about the topic of race, I want you to understand that the world around us moves according to the course of culture.

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Culture changes and shifts like sand. You'll notice from just a number of generations ago or just the last few decades, the sexual revolution that's changed the thinking of our country.

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Today, 60 % of non -Christians in this country believe that the biological sex of a person is different than the gender of that person or potentially could be.

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There is a dysphoria, a change in thinking that's happened in our culture. It wasn't that way.

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Even in the cultural understanding, the non -Christian cultural understanding wasn't that way just a generation ago.

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But this change has happened in our day. Sometimes it's even entirely illogical.

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They'll tell us that sexual desire changes over time. And yet, reparative therapy is impossible.

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They will say that Christians should never try to help others be restored to a more natural,

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God -honoring, biblical form of sexual desire. And yet, at the same time, they'll say it's fluid and people change in that area over time.

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The culture is changing at lightning speed around us. Do you notice that? The worldview that's around us is constantly changing.

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And here's what they say about race. They say that race is a binary, black and white.

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In truth, gender is a binary, although they make that fluid and make that a spectrum, and race is a spectrum.

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Follow me. The differences in race are a matter of degree of melanin in the skin and have no bearing on other aspects.

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Perfect example of this is the Koreans. You recognize that before the

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Korean War, there was really only one Korea. There was just Korea. But because of the war, there was a difference in worldview.

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The communist North and the capitalist South embraced different worldviews, and not just in terms of economics, but in terms of how you view the world.

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In the North developed a cult of personality around this leader, the

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Un, the Kim Jong -un family. The Kims. They see him as a god, and that shapes how they think.

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And today, the per capita income in North Korea is under $2 ,000 per person.

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In the South, it's around $38 ,000. Well, that's a difference in economics, but the difference in worldview is extreme.

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The other day, a North Korean who was standing guard for the North Koreans decided to defect to South Korea.

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He ran across the demilitarized zone between the two countries, and the orders given are to shoot on sight, the

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North shooting their own. As he crossed the demilitarized zone, he was hit six times and collapsed on the

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South Korean side. He was taken to a hospital, and he survived. But the doctor, the

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South Korean doctor said he had never seen in all of his years in South Korea the things that were afflicting this person.

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He had pneumonia, he had hepatitis, his inside intestines were racked with parasites.

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In fact, one parasite was 11 inches long living in his intestines, and he was shot six times.

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The South Korean doctor had never seen anything like it. Now, I have a question for you. What's the biological difference between a

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North Korean and a South Korean? Nothing. But the difference in living is formed by worldview, how the people of the

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North, especially the leadership which oppresses the people of the North, see the world versus how the world is seen in the

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South. So as we move through this text, I want you to understand this big idea, and then we'll come back to these racial questions in a moment.

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The big idea is that culture changes like shifting sand. New ideologies spring up, but these things never stand the test of time.

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Meanwhile, the biblical worldview remains intact, teaching truth, a worldview, speaking to all of life, all areas of life, including race.

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The world is in shambles and is divided, especially along racial lines.

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But the answer is right here in verse four. Begins with the gospel.

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The bad news, we're all dead. The rest of mankind, we're all the same. We're all descendants of Adam and Eve, dead in our trespasses and sins.

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No distinction between people. The rest of mankind, all of us, dead. But verse four, but God.

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Oh, those two words. But God. The transition from bad news to good news, from darkness to light, from death to life, but God.

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Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace, you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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Now, notice this is all the work of God. It's not the work of man. It says, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace, you have been saved through faith.

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And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. It's a great statement of the gospel.

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This morning, Mark prayed that the gospel would come forth from this pulpit. I declare to you, this is gospel.

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Grace. A way of salvation that is by faith and not by work. That we cannot contribute anything to salvation by doing good, being religious.

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No, the way of salvation is to put your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.

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Gospel. Gospel. Matthew Henry, one of my favorite writers, born in the 1600s, tells a story about when he was robbed one day.

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Along the road, a band of men beat him up and took his things. But I love how he commented on that experience a few days later.

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Matthew Henry says, let me be thankful. First, because I was never robbed before.

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Second, although they took my purse, they did not take my life.

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Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. And fourth, because it was

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I who was robbed and not I who robbed. It's a profound thought.

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See, he attributes his own workmanship, the work that he does in his life as a minister of the gospel, writing

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Bible commentaries. He says, look, I owe that to the grace of God. It was

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God's grace in my life that made me who I am and rescued me from the death that was in me that was my condition.

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But for the grace of God, go I. And he thanked God that he was not the robber, but rather was the one who got robbed.

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Here's the point. The gospel is God's rescuing us by his grace through faith.

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It's all his work, it's his doing. And now the implication from the gospel comes next, that because God is able to rescue dead sinners like us, he is able to bring unity into his church.

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These called out people, us who believe, can stand in unity despite all the racial differences and economic differences and age differences, societal differences, cultural differences from which we come,

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Jesus Christ by his cross can bring us together in one church, creating one new man. Let's see that again, a before and after.

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Verse 11 and 12 is the before and then breaking in with a but now, the good news.

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Here's the before. Verse 11, therefore remember that at one time, you

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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.

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It's the bad news. There was a racial component to what was happening in that the

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Jewish people were deriding those who were not Jewish, calling them the uncircumcision, looking down upon them and that tendency even continued in the church for a period of time.

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There came a point in Galatians 2 where Peter used to eat with the Gentile believers but when a certain band came up from Jerusalem, a

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Jewish group of believers came up, Peter would no longer sit down and eat with the Gentiles in front of those

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Jews. Hypocrisy, fear we're told in Galatians 2.

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Maybe of what those Jewish believers would think, of the problems they would create, we don't know what that fear was but Paul was there in the assembly.

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And here's Peter, this chief among the apostles,

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I mean he was the leader of the pack. Paul says when he saw what

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Peter did, he opposed him to his face in front of the congregation because Peter's offense was public and it was dividing the church along these racial lines,

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Jew and Gentile. He opposed him to his face and called him out for his hypocrisy from which

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Peter repented, the implication is. So it was even in the church in early days and still today, one of the most divided hours on a

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Sunday morning, I mean of the week is Sunday morning. White churches, black churches,

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Hispanic churches and Asian churches, why? It'd be one thing if we lived out in some part of the world where there were no other races, where everybody's ethnicity was the same but in Mount Laurel and Marlton and Morristown and these surrounding areas, we have a very diverse community and so we should reflect that diversity in the body of Christ because God is saving from a cross -section of humanity and the church is not made up of any one ethnicity, this is the point, this wall has been torn down, let's read it now, beautiful passage here, verse 13 and following, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ 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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In the Jewish temple in the first century, there was an outer court that surrounded the temple, separated by a four and a half foot wall and there were 13 placards on that wall which indicated that no

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Gentile was allowed to go past that wall into the temple on penalty of death.

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Two of those placards were actually discovered in the rubble and exist today in museums. A dividing wall of separation between Jew and Gentile.

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Paul tells us here that the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, redeemed a people for himself but in so doing, it tore that dividing wall, that partition to the ground, thus killing the hostility between Jew and Gentile so that the church becomes one new man.

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Jew and Gentile together and that speaks to us in our day and age. There is no more

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Jew and Gentile, slave and free. There's no black and white.

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There is one church in Christ Jesus. Let's read 17 and 18.

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And he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who were near.

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For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. The proclamation of the gospel, the preaching of peace is indiscriminate.

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No matter how far off from the center, from Jerusalem, we are the other side of the earth here in New Jersey from the starting point which was

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Jerusalem. But whether you go the other direction as far as Erie and Jaya, Papua New Guinea, here in America, the message remains the same.

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The call to all people is repentance and faith. And those who will repent of their sin and believe in Christ are included in the body of Christ.

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Without distinction, brothers and sisters, that is how you should evangelize.

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Here's the question. How do we, this church, become more diverse?

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I don't believe the answer is that we force it. I don't think we need to even pursue it as a program.

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Something to bring other races in to make us one. No, here's how racial diversity happens in the church.

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By the gospel. When you and I go out evangelizing indiscriminately and we preach to the homeless person and to the rich man and we don't look down on the homeless person and we don't lift up the rich person but rather call him to repentance and faith like anybody else, the

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Spirit leads us to all kinds of people without rhyme or reason. It's one of the reasons

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I love to play basketball. Because there's a cross section of humanity on the basketball court.

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And nobody cares what color your skin is. They care if you can put the ball in the hoop. But after that game is over,

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I'm just looking for someone to talk to. And I don't pick the white guy or the black guy or the teenager or any race or ethnicity or distinction.

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You talk to whoever you're standing next to. And as you go about your day, if we will evangelize, it's the gospel that will accomplish this work.

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Just like salvation was a work of God in calling forth a people to himself, so also it will be

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God who will create a diversified body right here. Why?

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We go out preaching indiscriminately. He will save those whom he will. And as people get saved, they come to church.

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And here in the church, we're one. We love each other regardless.

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So in closing, we see Paul describes, verses 18 to 23, this picture of the church, one temple, one new structure made up of Jew and Gentile -like built on the cornerstone,

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Christ Jesus. How do we apply this teaching? Well, I've already said, go forth from this place evangelizing indiscriminately.

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Second, welcome diversity in this church. Welcome it. You don't have to force it, but pray for it.

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Believe God for it. Ask God for it and accept it as it comes. God is able to do this.

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It's his work and I believe he will. Welcome diversity. Serve one another.

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Like Jesus washing feet, serve whoever you see. And love.

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It's how the church represents the love of God, loving those who are in need.

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As we go forth doing those things, he creates the diversity. He accomplishes it.

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I remember when I was a missionary in the inner city one day, I saw a kid who was sitting in front of the corner store.

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He was a Hispanic kid. And some men came driving up in like a

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Cadillac kind of thing, four men, they were dressed in all black. And they surrounded him and began to teach their religious doctrine to him.

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And I knew this kid, so I walked across the street and began to listen in. Before long, one of them turned to me and became a little bit hostile.

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And eventually he said, put out your arm. So I put out my arm and he put out his arm next to mine.

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And he said, what color is your skin? And in truth, my skin at the time, it was summer, was only a couple shades off from his skin.

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But he said, your skin is red because you are Esau. Esau, the red stew, whose skin was red.

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And he took from Romans nine, Esau, I hated. Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated.

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These men were members of a cult called the Black Hebrew Israelites. A racist group that believed that God only extends salvation to that particular ethnicity.

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And the white man, whose skin is more reddish, is of the devil.

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And there's no salvation for him. But in the same way, America has had a racist past against black people and against Native Americans.

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Joseph Smith wrote a book in the 1820s called the Book of Mormon. The theme of that book was that the

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Native Americans were descendants of Lamanites. And second,

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Nephi chapter 5, 21, explains why it is they had darker skin. He caused the cursing to come upon them.

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Yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had come like unto a flint.

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Wherefore, as they were white and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing to my people, the

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Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. The Book of Mormon is a racist book with a racist theory at the root.

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The idea that the Native Americans were cursed with dark skin because of their iniquity.

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But it wasn't only the Mormon church, that was a reflection of a larger culture. And unfortunately, when whites and blacks in this country were segregated, the church of Jesus Christ was often silent and often on the wrong side of that discussion.

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But the church of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world.

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And it is the reflection of God's glory, glory in the church. In closing,

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I wanna say, God is working something in this church. Bringing racial unity amongst diversity.

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And that will increase over the years. Welcome it. Let's demonstrate the glory of God in our unity, reflecting the

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Trinity, diversity with unity. This is exciting times we're living in.

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God is doing something here. Be prepared for what's coming in the next year. Welcome what's coming in the next year.

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Let's close in prayer. God, we thank you that you tore down the dividing wall of hostility.

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The separation between Jew and Gentile created a new man. This is a reflection of your glory.

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So Jesus, we pray that you would reveal your glory in this church, that we would have unity here in the midst of diversity.

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Let it be a light to a lost culture that has no understanding, that's following the course of this world, a constantly changing course.

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We pray for the age -old truth of your word, God, to be a light in this culture.

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Give us, Lord, unity in diversity. Be glorified in this church.