Sunday Sermon: One In Christ (Ephesians 2:11-22)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the book of Ephesians. Here's Pastor Gabe.

Ephesians 2, starting in verse 11, in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand? The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus, therefore remember that at one time you

Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

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.

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 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through Him we both have access in one spirit to the

Father. 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,

Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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

Spirit. Let us come again before the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, as we read today about the oneness that we have in Christ Jesus, I pray that we would understand this unity that has been accomplished through the precious blood of Jesus.

This is not something we must strive to attain, it has already been bought.

And now for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, we should walk in it.

May we understand what that means, the implications of that, as your saints, as children of God, and brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray and God's people said,

Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So over the last three weeks, we were looking at Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10, and coming to understand through a series of three sermons, emphasizing what

Paul emphasizes over and over again in that particular section, that we are saved by what?

Grace. Saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. There is no other manner by which we are saved, it is only in Christ Jesus.

It is only through the work of God. By grace you are saved.

He says it again, by grace you are saved through faith. This is the good news of the gospel.

The good news that it is not by our works that we come to salvation, but it is by the work of Christ and what he accomplished on the cross that we are saved.

That's why we call it gospel. That word gospel, that means good news.

Not by our works, but by the work of Christ. But in order for news to be good, and you've heard me say this before, in order for news to be good, you have to know the bad news first.

And the bad news is this, that we have sinned.

And we've sinned against a holy God. And what we deserve for that sin and our rebellion against God is death.

We deserve judgment. And there is no one that has not sinned.

Furthermore, there is no one that can ascend above this sin, this depravity that is inherent in all mankind, everybody who is descended from Adam.

We are all born into sin. We have a heart that is inclined to sin. We want to rebel against God.

We don't have a desire to do God's will. We have a desire to do our own will. God's will is defined in Romans 12, too, as good, pleasing, and perfect.

If you are rebellious against God, what does that make your will? Anything but good and pleasing and perfect, right?

So we pursue our own desires, the passions of our flesh, as Paul described in Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 3, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, so we're going after our own will and declaring in so doing that our ways are higher than God's ways.

Our thoughts are higher than God's thoughts. My way for me, God, the thing that I want to do,

I think this is better than whatever it is that you have for me to do. I can be good without God, and this is rebellious talk.

It's lawlessness, as described in 1 John. And what we deserve for breaking the perfect law of God in the presence of our

Holy Creator is judgment. We deserve death. Romans 3, 10 through 12, says that we've made ourselves worthless, fit for destruction, because of the sin and rebellion that we were walking in.

Paul even puts it this way in Ephesians 2, 1, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

But then we get to verse 4, and we have this beautiful turn of events, talking about the bad news, the sin, the death that we were in prior to Christ, and we have this wonderful grace that's explained to us in Ephesians 2, 4, but God, being rich in mercy.

And as I had said to you when we were looking at Ephesians 2, 4 through 7, those two words, but God, Martin Lloyd -Jones had preached were two of the most powerful words in the

Bible. You see such a turn of events happen when you read, but God.

We're dead in our sins and our transgressions, we are as good as nothing.

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, by grace you have been saved.

And then summarizing these statements that he's made here in these seven verses, he says in verse 8, 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 your works, so that no one may boast.

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

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So in light of the fact that we are saved by grace through faith,

God has prepared for us good works that we should walk in them. Works do not save us, but the good works that we do will be an expression of the salvation that we have, to demonstrate that our work is not our own, but it has been carried out in Christ Jesus, in God our

Father. And so what we read now in verses 11 through 22, we read that good work that should be demonstrated among the people of God, namely, first and foremost, the oneness that we should have.

That we're one in Christ, we're no longer separated, we're not divided into classes or castes or races or any of these other words that we might use to divide and distinguish people one from another.

But in Christ Jesus, we're one. We're one people. We're one body being sanctified in the

Spirit. Now in the book of Ephesians, this letter is basically divided into two parts, and I had talked about this when we went through our introduction to Ephesians, but just to kind of refresh your memory.

So the first three chapters of Ephesians are gospel.

It's Paul laying down a doctrine of grace, understanding that we've been saved by the grace of God.

He's laying out the gospel in the first three chapters. Then in the next three chapters, chapters four through six, we have the implications of that gospel.

So given that you're saved in Christ, what should that then look like in the lives of believers?

And we have the instructions exactly toward those good works that we should be walking in as Christians.

So what we have here in verses 11 and 22 is still doctrine, but there are going to be some implications to this, meaning that we should demonstrate as brothers and sisters in the

Lord our unity in light of what we're reading here in Ephesians 2, 11 through 22. So I'm going to go through this verse by verse as we typically do, and then when we get to the end of it, we'll talk about further those implications and how this should look for us as Christians, especially in this world.

Because my brothers and sisters, this world is divided. It's ridiculously divided. I don't even know how much news you would have to watch before you notice, wow, we're really messed up, really separated in our views, in our backgrounds, even our loyalties, those places where we would apply our hearts and dedicate ourselves and even put our consciences and our minds siding with this group or with that group, we're ridiculously divided people.

But in Christ Jesus, we're supposed to be one, and not in a sense of groupthink, not in a sense of like, well, we're just going with the flock, going with the sheep.

We are sheep, but not in the sense that we're mindless or brainless. Our minds, our consciences have actually been set free in Christ Jesus to worship

God as individuals, but especially as a body. So we look at Ephesians 2, verse 11.

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

There's two verses right there. Let's break those down. Now this section of Ephesians 2 is kind of laid out similarly to what we were looking at in verses 2 through 10.

We have the bad news and then the good news. Bad news, you were dead in your trespasses.

Good news, but God being rich in mercy, right? So this section of Ephesians 2 is laid out that same way.

Verse 11, therefore remember at one time you were separated from Christ. And then when we get to verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So we're going to see a turn in this particular section as well. Bad news, and then that makes the good news seem all the more great.

You Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. First of all, what are Gentiles?

Let's be very elementary here. What are Gentiles? Non -Jews, that's basically what

Gentiles are. That's all of us here, by the way. I don't think anybody could say that they are a purebred

Jew. You came from the line of the Jews. All of us here therefore would be Gentiles. We are non -Jews.

We were descended from a people that was not the people in the bloodline of Abraham. But in Christ Jesus, of course, we're in the bloodline of Christ.

But Gentiles were not the ones to whom the oracles of God were given. What do I mean by that?

The oracles of God? Well, the commandments of God. Ten commandments like Becky's going through with the kids during Kids Connection.

The Old Testament prophets, when God had something to say to his people, he spoke to them through a prophet.

Well, those prophets were sent to the Jews. They weren't sent to pagans.

And if at any point in the Old Testament we do read about a prophet of God speaking to a pagan, it's a prophet of God from the

Jews, who through Isaiah's book, for example, might be giving some sort of warning to Tyree or to Egypt or something to that degree.

But it's still in light of God's promises to his people, which was the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham.

All the promises and the oracles of God were given to the Jews. You think of the covenants in particular.

And there's three main covenants that we consider in the Old Testament. The Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, and the

Davidic covenant. But those covenants, the promises of the covenants, they were given only to the

Jews. Could Gentiles be a part of those covenants? Certainly they could. But there were certain qualifications that a

Gentile still had to meet in order to become part of the covenant people of God. Even within the genealogy of Jesus, which we're actually going to be looking at later this year as we get closer to Christmas in Matthew chapter 1, in the genealogy of Christ you have pagans in his own genealogy.

One of those pagans being Rahab that's mentioned. She was of the city of Jericho when the people of Israel were coming into the promised land.

And Rahab ends up marrying a Jew and becomes part of the covenant people of God. So it is possible for a

Gentile to become a Jew, but all of the promises of God are still given through that particular people group.

Given through the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, a specific ethnic group that God had appointed to himself.

Had called out of slavery in Egypt and had given them a land of promise. And then the

Gentiles, those who were not descendants of Abraham, they were far off. At one time, you

Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. Let's understand

Paul's meaning there for a moment. In your Bible, you might have the uncircumcision in quotes.

You have it in quotes? This was actually a derogatory term. So you think of a derogatory term that might be said of a particular people group or ethnicity or something like that?

You can think of some, don't say them out loud. But you can think of derogatory terms that if some guy on television is caught saying that, he gets fired from his job, right?

You'll hear that in the news the next week. So -and -so called another person a such -and -such, and therefore,

NBC has fired him off of their sitcom, something to that degree. Or a guy who was an anchor with CNN or Fox News, or he got caught saying some word, and therefore, he got fired from his job.

So we have these derogatory terms that are just absolute no -nos in our culture. Whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, people should not be using those words to describe others.

Well, the uncircumcision was a derogatory term that a Jew had for a non -Jew.

The uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands.

Now, Paul in that sense is even being somewhat derogatory himself because he's saying not that a

Jew has a right to call someone who is not circumcised the uncircumcision because that Jew himself, are they even circumcised in their own hearts?

They might be circumcised in their flesh, and therefore, they think that they have some privilege that a

Gentile doesn't have because they received a circumcision in their flesh. So Paul is kind of digging at him a little bit.

If you've got a Jew calling you the uncircumcision, well, that guy needs to check his privilege, to use a term that is floating around in our current cultural nomenclature.

Has this guy actually been circumcised in his own heart? Because that was the point of circumcision.

Circumcised in the flesh, certainly, but it's supposed to demonstrate a circumcision of the heart, meaning that a person is cut off from the ways of this world, and instead, they're united with Christ.

If they're just circumcised in their flesh, they have nothing to boast about. If they're circumcised in heart and they're united with God, well, then that's the work of God in their heart.

That's not the work of a man according to his hands. So Paul is making a distinction here.

Just because a person is uncircumcised doesn't mean that they're somehow less privileged than those who are circumcised because even those who had received that covenant sign that was given to Abraham, they may not truly be united with God because in their hearts, they're united with the world.

So that's what he means there when he says, with a circumcision that is made by flesh with hands. He's not talking about the circumcision of heart, but rather that sign that the

Jews would practice. And here in this particular time period, it was easy to know who was circumcised and who was not.

How is it easy to know that? It's not like when you came into the temple, they were checking you. You had to pull up your robe and show whether you were circumcised or not, okay?

That's not the way that they were identified. But remember, this is during a period and a time of public bathing.

So they had the public bathhouses, and when a person went into a bathhouse and they de -robed, you could tell, ah, that person's a

Jew or not a Jew. And so then that person would be marked.

The Jews would be prejudiced against the non -Jews, the uncircumcision, as they called them.

And so there was this bigotry, there was this prejudice that existed. But one of the things that Paul is noting here is not the existence of the prejudice.

What he's noting here is that there was actually a distinct separation between Gentiles and Jews.

And it's not a separation according to the prejudice and the bigotry of man.

It's a separation according to God's design. God himself had ordained that the

Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, would be his people, and the Gentiles would not receive the promises and the oracles of God.

All throughout the Bible, as I said to you before, even when we were going through Ephesians chapter 1, all throughout

Scripture, Genesis to Revelation, there's always a remnant. The majority are always sinful, wretched, depraved.

And God always brings out of sinners a remnant for himself, which he purifies and makes holy in the

New Testament period or even in the Old Testament period, according to the precious blood of Christ. So even here, this distinction that Paul is making regarding Jews and Gentiles, he's not talking about the prejudice, although we have that in the language.

He's specifically noting the separation that existed between Jews and Gentiles because God had ordained it to be that way.

Verse 12, he says, Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ. You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world.

Now, Paul actually uses a combination of temple language here and Roman language that was common to the culture of the

Ephesians at that particular time, particularly that word commonwealth. That was a

Roman word because you had to be a Roman citizen in order to receive the privileges of a

Roman citizen. Paul was a Roman citizen. For those of you who went through Dave's study in Acts a couple of years ago, you would see the occasions in which

Paul would declare his citizenship in order to receive the rights of a Roman citizen, but he would do this and use those advantages for the purpose of advancing the gospel.

And so we take an example from that and how we as Americans can utilize the rights that we have as Americans in order to further the gospel, right?

Freedom of religion, the freedom that we have to be able to share the gospel with others, we can utilize those rights in that way.

So Paul did with his rights as a Roman citizen. Only a Roman citizen could receive the rights of a

Roman citizen, and they were called the commonwealth. Those who were outside Roman citizenship, those who were strangers and aliens to the

Roman Empire, they didn't receive the rights and privileges that Roman citizens had.

Now, there was a certain kind of common grace that people received, just being in the Roman Empire as long as you were following the

Roman law. But privileges of things like voting or being able to have certain rights in court or certain taxation rights, things of that nature, those were only for the

Romans. And Paul uses that language to describe, at one time you were separated from Christ, you were not part of the commonwealth.

You were not part of those who receive the rights of the citizens of the kingdom of God. What sort of rights are we talking about?

Well, that was right at the very beginning of the letter. Ephesians 1, 3, Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Fellowship with God, the promise of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, the oneness with the people of God, these and many others are included in the promises and the benefits that we have for those who are in Christ.

Those who are in Christ receive those privileges, but those who are not in Christ do not. As Paul says in Romans 8, 9, those who do not have the spirit of Christ do not belong to him.

So those who are the people of God are specifically those who are in Christ Jesus. Those who are not in Christ are not the people of God.

As Jesus even made this distinction to the Jews in John 8, he said, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

Jesus said this to Jews in John 8. Why? Why would Jews be of their father, the devil, instead of their father in heaven?

Well, because it's only in Christ that we have adoption, that we can be called children of God.

Without Christ, we don't receive the rights and privileges of his children. So at one time, all of us, just like we read in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, we were all dead in our sins and our transgressions.

At that same time, we were also separated from Christ and alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, of the people of God, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

If we were to have died in that state, we would perish in judgment, because we wouldn't know

Christ. We wouldn't have the covenant promises of God. You know, oftentimes, whenever we start talking about it, it is only those who are in Christ who have eternal life.

It is only to those who have heard the gospel and repented from sin and believed in Christ as Lord.

Whenever we start getting into these conversations, more often than not, there's somebody that's going to raise this objection.

But what about that good man in Timbuktu who has never heard the gospel before, but he's just doing the best with what he's got?

He's trying to be a good person. He is nice to others. Maybe he's never heard of Christ before, so he worships the

Son. You know, that's the thing. It's the brightest thing in the sky. I don't know what else to worship.

I'm inclined to worship, so I'm going to worship the Son. He's never heard the gospel. So why would

God send that guy to hell? Would God send a good person to hell? The answer to that scenario and the answer to that question is, no, he wouldn't.

God would never send a good person to hell. But here's the thing, that person doesn't exist.

There is no such thing as the good person who is just doing the best he can with what he's got.

Because once again, Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And this comes right after Paul had said in Romans 1 that those who are sinful and depraved exchange the worship of God, the creator, for the worship of things, the created.

Those who worship the created things are not in Christ. Sun, people, idols, trees, plants, rocks, whatever.

If a person is worshiping the created things rather than the creator, they are separated from God.

And this is why we, as Christians, should understand it is only through the hope of the gospel that a person has salvation.

So this should motivate us to want to step out and share the gospel with somebody, lest they perish without it and fall into judgment.

It is only those who believe in Christ that are saved. And we must come to an understanding of that in our anthropology, you know, the nature of man.

We're sinners. We're sinners and depraved, wretches, and separated from God. And it is only by faith in the gospel that we have salvation and fellowship with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is saying to these Gentiles who have since become

Christians, before you came to Christ, you were separated from God, and that would have been your judgment for you.

The judgment of God would have come down upon you and nothing would have saved you. But then we have that beautiful turn, just like we had in Ephesians 2 .4,

so we have it in Ephesians 2 .13. But now in Christ, previously you had no hope, you were without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

You were far away, you were way out there. And like I said, there's also some temple language that's being used here as well.

The court of the Gentiles was way out there. Like people couldn't come to the

Holy of Holies, even the Jews couldn't just walk into the Holy of Holies, that was the high priest.

And only on Yom Kippur, one day a year, he entered into the Holy of Holies where God dwelled, and offered a sacrifice for the sins of the people.

And only the high priest could do that, and the priest had to meet certain qualifications too, it couldn't just be anybody. Had to be of the tribe of Levi.

He had to be ceremonially washed and cleansed so many times before he entered into the

Holy of Holies. And this was a painstaking process. Even the week before Yom Kippur, he separated from the rest of the people, and he's in a time of private meditation, cleansing himself and his conscience even, before he goes to offer sacrifices on behalf of the sins of the people.

The Jews who were there at Yom Kippur, they could be close to the Holy of Holies, they could stand and watch as the priest walked in.

Gentiles couldn't. There was a wall that separated the Jews from the Gentiles, the Gentiles had to be on the other side of that wall, and there was even a sign on the wall that said, if you cross this barrier, you could be put to death.

So the Gentiles were separated from the promises of God to his people.

They were far off. You were far away. And you could even put this in a geographical sense.

You're talking about Gentiles that were far away from the land of promise where God was giving his promises to his people.

Not a lot of proselytes coming out of the promised land and going into the world and saying, hey, come and worship

God and enjoy the promised land with us. Everybody was isolated. The Jews were in one place,

God was in one place, the temple that was erected there in Jerusalem, everyone else was far off.

But now in Christ, you who were once far off, you've been brought near by the blood of Christ.

According to the book of Hebrews, we now have a high priest that enters the Holy of Holies for us on our behalf, this mediator who is

Christ, and we can come into the presence of God whenever we want. So this is not just a matter of a geographical location of being far off, but even in this spiritual sense.

We who were dead in our sins and our trespasses, we were far off. But in Christ Jesus, we're near.

How near? We're friends of God. We're sons and daughters of God.

We've received all the promises of the children of God, every one of them in Christ Jesus.

We've been brought near by the precious blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, it says in verse 14, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

So once again, you have that dividing wall, that separated the Jews from the Gentiles in the temple court, and that wall has been broken down.

Spiritually more so than literally. The literal wall would not be broken down until 70

AD. But in Christ, there's no wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles.

Folks, there is not two people of God. There's only one. Only one people of God, and it is everyone who is in Christ.

We are the people of God. We are the commonwealth of Israel.

As Paul is stating here in Ephesians 2, there's no separation. A Jew becomes a

Christian, and a Gentile becomes a Christian the exact same way. It's by faith in Christ.

A Jew does not receive any special privileges simply for being a Jew, nor does a Gentile even receive special privileges simply for being a

Gentile. But all of us in Christ Jesus, we've been made one. This dividing wall of hostility has been broken down, verse 15, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.

What's the opposite of peace? The opposite of peace is hostility. So when we don't have

Christ, when we were not in Christ Jesus, we weren't in some neutral territory. We were in hostility.

We, in our actions and in our behaviors and in our rebellion, we were hostile against God. And my friends, he was even hostile toward us.

Because as it says in John 3, 36, those who do not have the Son, the wrath of God remains on them.

So if you don't have peace, you have hostility. But in Christ Jesus, we have peace.

And it's a peace that's so much better than just like the absence of war. It's a peace that's even better than being able to sit in your lawn chair in your backyard with a lemonade, enjoying the nice, cool, what are we at, 75 degrees today or something like that.

Maybe you even have a house that doesn't have a mortgage on it. You've got two cars out front that are all paid off.

Would that not be peaceful? That's some peace. That's what they call the

American dream, right? But it's even greater peace than that. It's a greater peace than a relaxation in your body.

It's greater peace than not knowing depression, not knowing hurt, hurt feelings or betrayal.

It's a greater peace than not knowing the anxieties of, what am I going to do this week? How am

I going to get through yet another week holding out until the next paycheck? The peace that we have in Christ Jesus is peace with God, knowing that our sins are not held against us.

We are forgiven our sins. And on that day of judgment, which everyone's going to face when we die, we'll stand before God in judgment.

We know that we will not hear from God, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. We'll hear from God, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Now great is your reward. That's the promise that we receive in Christ.

This is the hostility that God did away with and so gave us peace.

Verse 16, that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. Peace is the message of the gospel.

As we go through Ephesians, we get to Ephesians chapter 6. What's Ephesians chapter 6 most known for?

The armor of God, right? What's the shoes? The shoes of the gospel of peace.

You have your feet readied with the shoes of the gospel of peace. Why are shoes the gospel of peace?

Because we're supposed to take it somewhere. And when you come with the message of the gospel, you come delivering good news.

It's in the book of Isaiah where Isaiah talked about the beautiful feet. Paul talks about this also in Romans chapter 10, yes, but how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of the gospel of peace.

And Paul uses that metaphor with the Romans, he uses it here in Ephesians as well, Ephesians chapter 2, and then it comes up again in Ephesians chapter 6.

We have received the message of peace. He came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who were near.

It is in the message of the gospel that we know we have peace with God, forgiveness of sins.

For through Him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father, whether Jews or Gentiles.

Those who were far off, those who were near. Those who were near were even not really truly near to God.

They may have been near in proximity, but their hearts were far from God. But it's only in the message of the gospel that we have been united with God.

And we're no longer strangers and aliens, verse 19, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Now, this isn't as mysterious as people want to make it out to be.

There are so many commentaries that I've read on who are the prophets and the apostles. Very simply, it's the prophets are those who wrote the

Old Testament, the apostles are those who wrote the New Testament. The church is built on that foundation.

Peter uses the same language in 1 Peter 2. By the way, ladies, when you have your women's conference coming up in about a month, that's your theme passage, 1

Peter 2, verses 9 and 10, where Peter, in this case, wrote the letter of Peter.

Anyway, so Peter being the one who says there even that we are all living stones and we're all being built up into a spiritual house unto the

Lord. What's the foundation of that spiritual house that's being built? It's the prophets and the apostles, with Christ himself being the cornerstone.

What's the cornerstone? What's the significance of that? The cornerstone is the first stone, and every other stone that gets laid is laid in relation to the cornerstone.

Those of you who are in architecture, you understand this principle, this concept, but we can even still see remnants of this style of architecture even today.

You can go downtown and there are city buildings where you'll have a particular stone right there on the corner.

You know what I'm talking about? Might have something emblazoned on the side that says like 1918 on it, because that's when the cornerstone was laid.

And then every other stone that was built up into that building was set in relation to the cornerstone.

If the cornerstone is off, the rest of the building is going to be off. And so the foundation of the church is what the prophets preached and what the apostles preached.

Christ is the cornerstone. Everything is set in relation to Christ. If you're off on Christ, you're going to be off on everything else.

And there are some religions out there that claim to be built on Christ, but they're built on the wrong Christ.

They're built on a Christ of their own making. But if we understand the biblical Jesus, who

Jesus said he was, who the prophets prophesied that he would be, he fulfilled those things.

The apostles testified about it. And it's that Christ who becomes the cornerstone, the foundation of the message of the gospel that was delivered, becomes the prophets and the apostles.

By the way, we go back to that foundation every Sunday. We open up our Bibles and read it.

And we preach this to the people of God. This is the foundation of prophets and apostles.

With Christ as the cornerstone. You are fellow citizens.

You're no longer strangers and aliens. You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Verse 21, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the

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

Spirit. So there's our breakdown of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 22.

Now, what are the implications of this? This passage is often used in talking about the unity that we should have as the people of God, and that there should be no racial divisions among us.

Most often, whenever I look up sermons of anybody who's preaching in Ephesians 2, 11 through 22, more often than not, that's what they're preaching about.

They'll use this passage to talk about how there should not be any racial divisions between us. And most certainly, that's the case.

We should not be divided. We should be one as a people of God. I mean, how shallow is it to judge one another according to the color of our flesh, especially when you consider how arbitrary race is?

Like, at what point does a person's melanin in their skin pass a certain point that they become this race and not that race, right?

And I can tell you that every single one of us in here, we're all mutts to some degree.

Like, can anybody say, well, I'm purely of this race and I have only come from this racial line and there's no other nationality or ethnicity that has jumped into my family tree in there at any point?

Can anybody say that? We've all been derived from, guess what, folks, the same two people,

Adam and Eve. And then about 2 ,000 years after Adam and Eve, there was a flood in which the entire world's population was wiped out by the judgment of God, save for eight people on an ark.

So that means we're even descended from one of three families, either Shem, Ham, or Japheth. And we've all descended from those families and come here today, again, all the way back to the same ancestors,

Adam and Eve. Race is abstract. It's not real.

It doesn't exist. We're people. We're all made in the image of God. But there is a kind of narrative that is starting to infect our culture right now in that if you don't recognize somebody's race and show them particular privileges according to their race, or take away certain privileges according to their race, well, then you're racist.

That's right. You're racist because you're not judging a person according to their race.

That's absurd. But that's the narrative that exists now. And it's even coming into the church.

It's coming into the Southern Baptist Convention. And I warned you about this earlier this year with the passing of a resolution that had brought in terms of critical race theory and saying that we should all be judging our churches and weighing one another according to these analytical tools, as they were termed, critical race theory.

But this divides the people of God. It doesn't unite us. When we bring worldly theories into the people of God that are supposed to be one in spirit, then we become divided by worldly philosophies.

It's as if we're saying, look, what we're reading here in Ephesians 2, 11 through 22, about being one in Christ, that's just not enough.

So what I need, I need some sociology up in this place. And then you've got some teachers out there who are, they're even introducing a new canon.

They're even saying things like, unless you've read these books, you can't really know what it's like to be this other person and how can you truly relate to one another unless you've read these books.

I only need one book. I only need this one. And just because I haven't read those other ones, it doesn't make me less capable of loving my brother or sister in the

Lord. Does this mean that we've never actually truly attained a unity in Christ and a fellowship with one another until these sociologists came along and wrote these books?

My friends, if we, in our sinful flesh, were trying to attain racial reconciliation with one another, just in ourselves, just like we're just going to be nicer to each other, that's our aim, that's our goal.

If we were to just try to do that in and of ourselves, we would epically fail at it. We are unable in our flesh to overcome our flesh.

Racial reconciliation is impossible to attain. It is only attained in Christ.

And it's not something that we work to acquire. It's already been purchased.

Christ has already purchased the reconciliation that we should have with one another.

And so now we should walk in it. And that's the statement here in verse 22, in Him, you also are being built together in a dwelling place for God by the

Spirit. God has already ordained that this work be accomplished in His Son, and now we should walk in it.

Walking in good works, right? Ephesians 2 .10. And so we walk in this reconciliation that we have with one another.

Christ has purchased it, now let's do it. To be reconciled, as I've shared with you before, it's one of my favorite

Bible words because I think in the definition of that word, you even have the gospel.

To be reconciled means to accept that which was not previously desired. And before the gospel of Christ came, we didn't desire

God and He didn't desire us in that state. But in Christ Jesus, He's made us righteous, and now when

He looks at us, He sees the righteousness of His Son. So we become acceptable in the eyes of a holy

God. But we've been more than reconciled to God, we've also been reconciled to one another.

In Titus 3 .3, it says that before we came to Christ, we were hated by others and hating one another.

But it's in Christ Jesus we have unity with each other. We're one in spirit and in body with the

Lord. So therefore, in light of that, let us treat one another exactly that way, with the same grace and kindness that God our

Father has shown us. The person that you're sitting next to is a sinner, but if they are blood -bought, bought with the precious blood of Christ, they're your brother or sister in the

Lord. And guess what, my friends, you're stuck with them. You're stuck with them for all eternity.

And this is according to God, not according to man. See, the racial divisions that separate us, these are all surface -level things.

It's all based on a judgment of what we see on the outside. Maybe there's some ethnic prejudice in there, maybe it has to do with where a person grew up, was raised, or something to that degree.

Maybe there's some undertones of that in a person's racism. But it's all man -made.

It's all arbitrary and it's all according to our own prejudices and bigotry. The separation that existed between Jews and Gentiles, as I say to you again, was created by God.

There was a separation between Jews and Gentiles that God made. And if he can bring that separation together into one, don't you believe that he can bring two people who are separated from one another into one person as well?

Now, I've described this in terms of race because that's kind of the narrative that's going on in our culture right now, but this has to do with all of our relationships.

This has to do with marriage, husband and wife, fight or argue with one another.

Be reconciled to each other because God has reconciled you in his blood. Let's say that I am fighting with my wife.

Doesn't happen very often, but we do have disagreements, okay? Let's say we got in a fight that was so serious that we couldn't talk to one another and we're walking away and we're sitting in separate rooms.

This has actually never happened before between us, but let's, for the sake of the illustration, say that it has.

I go away for a couple of hours. I'm sitting in my study and I'm reading a book and Becky comes and finds me two hours later and I'm sitting there reading a book about how to understand women.

Now, is she going to look at me sitting there reading that book and go, aw, he does love me and care about me.

He's reading a book about how to understand women. No.

No, she's not going to think that. So, how do we attain that unity?

By reading books about one another? There has to be a fellowship. There has to be a fellowship with each other.

My friends, there's a fellowship between us and God. He sent his son, God in flesh, who died for us and rose for us, that through him we would have eternal life.

And he even communicates with us. When we read his word, God is talking to us.

When we pray, we're talking to God. This is the communication and fellowship that we have with each other.

And it's not that books can't be beneficial. I read all kinds of books, all the time. But it's not how you have fellowship with one another.

But let us not neglect the fellowship that we have with one another and through Christ Jesus. We were once separated from God.

We were once hostile toward one another. We were hostile toward God. But in Christ Jesus, we who were once far off have been brought near.

And that is a blessed hope of the gospel of Christ. Our world is going to continue to clamor at different philosophies and different sociology to try to attain a unity.

They can never get through those things. It is only in Christ. So we do our world a favor when we take them the gospel.

Amen. Amen. Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.