Good evening, and let me welcome you to our Bible study. As always, we do greatly appreciate you taking the time to tune in and support our study around God's word. As I said on Sunday, we are tonight returning to the book of Ephesians and trying to get back to some kind of normality in our Bible studies. Prior to Christmas, we were just spending a Wednesday night looking at some devotional thoughts But given that we don't know how long these restrictions are going to be in place and how long our Wednesday nights are going to be online, we took the decision just to get back to our regular Bible study, albeit through this medium. And so if you can continue to support the meetings and just treat it as if you're in church and study God's Word together. Just a few announcements. I know that probably a lot of you are waiting to hear what we are going to say in terms of our Sunday morning service. Are we going to be in the building or are we going to be online? I'm not going to answer that tonight because we aren't yet completely sure what the government is advising us to do. We're waiting on that. And we were due to have an elders meeting last night. In light of the announcement, we actually have postponed that until tomorrow night because we've been assured that we will sort of know one way or the other by tomorrow. And so we're going to meet tomorrow night and make a formal decision on that and we will get it out as quick as we can. what the format is for Sunday morning. One thing about Sunday morning is at quarter past 10, for the young people, your Bible class will recommence with Johnny and with Matthew, and that'll run until about a quarter to 11, so remember that on Sunday morning. And then on Sunday evening, we continue online, we've already made that decision, and so we're online on Sunday night, and we'll be picking up our series that we were thinking just prior to Christmas Christ in all the scriptures and we're coming to the book of Deuteronomy on Sunday evening. Really encouraging to see the numbers who tuned in on Sunday night past and so you just keep that up. I know it's maybe not enjoyable to sit at home and watch church but certainly it encourages my heart and it's good for us to continue as much as normal to meet around God's Word and treat it as if we were going to church. It's easy maybe to get comfortable or complacent but we don't want to let that happen. Just looking a little bit further ahead this night, next week, God willing, Wednesday the 13th of January our SBC Kids Online will recommence and a lot of work has gone into that. It was greatly used by the Lord coming up to December and those months when we weren't having the searchers we're looking to the Lord to do the same and I mentioned that tonight that you would take it upon your heart and pray for it. These are boys and girls that need the Lord and just because we're maybe not meeting in person doesn't mean that the Lord is bound and so let's really pray that God would use the ministry online among the boys and girls. Now that's everything that I want to say this evening by way of announcement and just before we come to God's Word let's unite our hearts in prayer and let's ask that the Lord would bless us and and help us in each of our homes to study his word and know the help of the Holy Spirit as we look at these things together. Our Father in heaven, we bow in your presence this evening and Lord we want to thank you. Thank you indeed that you are God and you're the sovereign God. We know that you're the one true God and we thank you Father for the day that you made yourself known to us through your Son the Lord Jesus. Lord we want to thank you for the day and hour that you saved us. Thank you Father for the security of our salvation as we've been studying even in the book of Ephesians the great grace of God that moved towards us who were sinners. And Father, we thank you today that we are redeemed. Thank you for being redeemed by precious blood. We thank you for being redeemed as an extension of your grace. And Father, we thank you for being brought into that right standing with God. Lord, these are days when our faith is being tested. These are days, Father, that are difficult, but we know that you are sovereign and we thank you that we can rest in your sovereignty. We thank you we can be assured that you will build your church whether it's through an online ministry or through some other means Lord, but we know that we would long to be in the building and you know the buildings have been closed but we thank you that the church is still open, we thank you that the church is a body and help us to be encouraged in these days, help us to encourage one another and we pray for those tonight that are struggling, those that are finding the way difficult, those that are having come on home from hospital and Lord, they're not in their best form. Lord, those who are discouraged by the recent measures that are in place, those who are fearful, those who are fighting on the front line of this thing and are stressed and are, Lord, under pressure, we pray for each and every one of them. Tonight we ask that they might know the help of God with them. But Father, as we particularly come now to study your word, as we come back to this wonderful epistle of the book of Ephesians, we ask that you will minister to our hearts. We pray you'll Help us to know the help of the Holy Spirit, Lord, not to be distracted in our own homes, but to tune our hearts to heaven and to learn from your word and even be blessed by the things that we see in it. Lord, teach us here we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Now let's take our Bibles and as I say come back to the book of Ephesians and last time in our Wednesday night studies we were in Ephesians chapter 2 and we looked at how God makes a sinner into a saint in verses 1 to 10 Ephesians chapter 2 and you can go back and listen again to those messages. I'm not going to go back over everything that we cover but tonight we are going to look at when 2 become 1 and we're coming to Ephesians chapter 2 and we want to read from verse number 11 down to verse number 17. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11 and Paul writes, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called on circumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made now by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall or partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. Now that's where we're going to end our reading this evening and we know that God will bless the reading of his word. On Thursday the 10th of February in the year 2000, British telecoms giant Vodafone and German conglomerate Mamasatman made history by merging in what still exists as the largest corporate merger in history. Ironically, however, the historic merger was shrouded in hostility. You see, prior to the merger, Mama's Man's telecoms division had started to move into the UK market. Vodafone thus accused Mama's Man of breaking a gentleman's agreement not to compete in each other's home territory. Yet after several months of those hostile negotiations, in the end the two became one in a deal that is worth a record £112 billion. Here in Ephesians 2 an even greater merger is set before us. It's a merger between two groups that have shared hostilities almost as long as history. That being the merger between the Jew and the Gentile. If Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1 to 10 details how God creates the Christian, well verses 11 to 17 detail how God created the church. Paul has spent some time teaching the Ephesians how they individually were created but Paul now spends time teaching them how as individuals they form part of a larger body. Of course the church did not exist in the Old Testament prior to Pentecost. They did not exist in the Old Testament or prior to Pentecost but that new body was born that monumental day when, as we read in Ephesians 2 and 15, that the Lord made in himself of twain one new body. When the Lord took two opposing people groups who shared hostility and not love, bind them together himself and created one new body called the church. Now it's absolutely important that we understand what is being taught here. And it's really, really important not to misunderstand what I am preaching either. Paul is not teaching that the church would replace Israel spiritually or take the place of Israel nationally. And sometimes we hear that taught and we know there are those who believe that Israel is the church and the church is Israel and when we read of Israel in the Old Testament, well really that's the church and we read of the church in the New Testament, well really that is Israel. They're all one in the same body. That's not what Paul is teaching and nor do we believe that that's what the Bible teaches. We believe that God still has a firm place and a future purpose for the nation Israel. Rather here Paul is presenting how this new body called the church would be made up of a diversity of individuals. You see Paul here is teaching these Gentiles where they fit in in God's redemptive history. Paul is teaching that this new body would not just be made up of converted Jews. Rather, as John saw in Revelation 7 and 9, the church would be made up of a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. You see, God and his salvation, and what Paul is teaching here, is no longer would be exclusive to the Jews, but would be inclusive of the Gentiles. Paul is teaching that through the cross, Christ had created a new and living way for anyone, Jew or Gentile, to know God and be in relationship, not only with God, but with each other. This is really revolutionary truth as Paul reveals it here and sets out high the church. was created and Paul does that by making his points through a series of contrasts. In verse number 11 Paul sets first of all before us two peoples. He says, wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called on circumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. Paul here in this verse first of all identifies for us two peoples. Categorizing people, most general to most specific, a person can be said to belong to one of these categories. We are generally one of three human races. We fit within one of six ethnic groups. We can be categorised as belonging to one of 195 citizenships. We can be categorised as being one of 223 nationalities. Or we can be classified as being one of an estimated 24,000 different people groups. And there we can see as the world categorizes people, it can be done generally in terms of a race or right down to the specifics of belonging to a people group. But where the world has several different ways of categorizing people, Paul explains how God really divides the people of this planet into two different categories. Those who are Jews called the circumcised and those who are Gentiles those identified as the uncircumcised. That's why God really divides the planet or divides the nations or divides the peoples. Most of us are Gentiles. We belong to the rest of the world. You see, only a specific elect few belong to Israel. You see, in God's eyes there are those of Israel and there are those outside of Israel. Now going away back in the beginning when you open your Bible and you read from Genesis chapter 1 through to the end of Genesis chapter 11, in the beginning there was only one people. You could say in the beginning there were only Gentiles. But you know from Genesis chapter 1 through to the end of Genesis chapter 11 man began to turn against God and go his own way and rejected God. Eventually until we come to Genesis chapter 12 where things drastically changed and there in Genesis chapter 12 God called a man Abraham out of the world, out of the pagan land of the Ur of the Chaldees and this was a man that God would begin to deal specifically with, a man through whom a special nation would be born and in Genesis chapter 12 God made a covenant promise And later on, under Jacob's jurisdiction, the grandson of Abraham, the nation of Israel, was born in a new people group. was identified on the earth. You know, this nation was special. This nation was set apart. This nation was to be separate. In fact, in Deuteronomy chapter 14 in verse 2, listen to what is said of Israel, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth and since then, since the covenant with Abraham and really the birth through Jacob, Israel has been God's ancient elect people. A people separated out of the world. A people to whom God made promises. A people with whom God created covenants. A people through whom God revealed his plan of redemption. A people by whom God would bring our Messiah into the world. A people that really existed not only to be God's own special people but really to be a light to the rest of the world. To reveal God. to the nations around them. Of course, we know that rather than reaching the nations around them, Israel really became like the nations around them and even though Israel over their time repeatedly rebelled and was repeatedly unfaithful to God, God was relentlessly faithful to them. You see he had made unbreakable covenants. God is married to Israel and I want to say to you again tonight and I believe with us all my heart God has not forgotten about the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel are still God's elect people. The promises that God and the covenants God has made with Israel have not been nullified just because the nation of Israel has not kept them. And I can assure you, as we see things moving in our world tonight, that God will yet turn again in the future and deal with Israel as he once did in the past. The church has not replaced them. The church has not taken their place. Rather, we're living in this parentheal age where God is dealing with the Gentiles. But God will turn again to the Jew. They have a future. you know in God's eyes if this was one people group, the Jews, the circumcision, in God's eyes the other people group then was everyone else outside of Israel, a much greater group called the Gentiles. Here they're called the uncircumcision in contrast to the Jew and you know you and I tonight are part of that group. We are part of the Gentiles and here the Ephesians were part of that group and so Paul here begins to explain to them what they are where they came from and how they've been brought to the place they are. You see, the Gentiles were aware that all of the covenants in the Old Testament dealt with Israel and God had made promises to the Jew and promises of redemption. And so Paul begins to explain where they fit and how God dealt with them. Now as we think of the Gentiles, they are exactly the same as the Jews morally. That's what Paul says in Ephesians 2, And verse 5, he says, even when we were dead and sins hath quickened us together with Christ. Paul there is speaking and including himself, we, of course, Paul once was a Jew. The Jews and the Gentiles are no different morally. Paul makes that argument clear in the early chapters of Romans that whether Jew or Gentile, we're all sinners and we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Gentiles are exactly the same as the Jews morally, but they are entirely different positionally. Certainly, as far as the two peoples were concerned, the Gentiles were detested by the Jews. The Jews saw the Gentile as an unclean dog. Do you know if a Jew had have gone into Gentile territory and had returned back into their own land, they would have taken off their shoes and dusted off the dust the Gentile dust so as not to pollute their own holy land. The Jews really despised the Gentiles and the Gentiles really despised the Jews. which is actually quite tragic because the Jew was initially rose up or God commissioned the Jew to help and not hate the Gentile. It was God's desire that the Jewish people would be a light to the world and reveal God to the world. really the opposite happened and of course we read throughout the book of Acts how the Jews persecuted Paul for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles and Peter was criticized and challenged for going and leaving and ministering to the Jews and going to the Gentiles. But here's the thing, these two were once very much at enmity with each other. And any thought of reconciliation would have been an inconceivable thought, particularly to a Jew. Oh yes, Paul sets out for us two people. And I know that's a lot of information to take in. But you know, while in Christ, and this is where you and I need to understand something tonight, while in Christ, as Paul says in Galatians 3 and 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. We must never forget the debt that you and I as Gentiles tonight owe to the Jews. The world hates the Jew. The world has always hated the Jew. But as believers in Jesus Christ tonight, we must never forget that we owe them a debt. We must not see ourselves as better or allow ourselves to be boastful and Paul spoke about that in Romans 11 and 18 that we're not to boast. Rather, we must remember, as Paul wrote in Romans 11, 18, that through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. We must not see ourselves as being better because we have believed in Christ and have rejected Christ. No, no. Rather, through their fall, salvation has come to us. The very fact that they fell and rejected Christ was part of God's great sovereign plan to reach us. In fact, we must remember how the book of Romans opens, where the Gentile is put firmly in his place because Paul in that infamous 16th verse of Romans 1 says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth in him. Listen to this, to the Jew first and also to the great. Remember Christ came as the King of the Jews. He came unto his own and his own received him. Now that's not to say that just because Israel rejected Christ that God turned to us as an afterthought. No, no, this is how things worked out and how God worked it out. This is how in his infinite wisdom that God would reach out to us who were Gentiles. But we must never set ourselves above them. because of their unbelief God has then moved towards us and you know as we think about that and we put it all together in Ephesians 2 it means that we don't deserve this so great salvation on two levels we don't deserve it individually because of what we are personally and that's what verses 1 to 10 teach us but you know we really don't deserve this salvation nationally and that's what Paul goes on to teach as he goes in verses 12 and 13 he moves on from speaking about two people to speaking about two positions. You see in verses 12 to 13 Paul begins to speak of what the Gentiles were and he begins to help the Ephesians to see what they were. He says that a time passed and ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Paul speaks directly about the Gentiles, about us, what we once were as a group. Verse 12, he takes them to a time past and sets them their natural condition and then in verse 13 he brings them to now in their new condition and you know there's even a thought of that all of us have a time past what we once were but thank God for what we are now we're in a new condition. Paul says that the Gentile was once not only in an awful condition but also lived in an awful fivefold position You know, Paul, first of all, says that the Gentiles were without Christ. Who was Christ? Well, Christ, of course, was the Messiah. And you know, as we think about Christ and we think about Israel, throughout the Old Testament, Israel had messianic hope. they had the assurance of a promised deliverer, a saviour who would come, that saviour who was divinely promised and prophesied in detail about and they could hang on to those promises and they lived in the assurance that one was coming to redeem them as a nation coming to set up a kingdom for them. But as you think of that, by contrast, the Gentiles had no Christ. They were without a Christ. They had no promise provided Messiah to hope in. They had no coming Christ to fix their faith in. As far as the Gentile was concerned, their salvation was bound up in pagan gods and philosophical ideas. They had no Christ. They were without Christ. You know, what a position to be in. To be looking for salvation in everything else and not knowing of a Saviour who is promised to come. They were without Christ. But Paul also says that they were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. That simply means, or takes us to the formation of Israel. Remember as I said that in Genesis 12 that God promised through Abraham a special nation would be formed, taken out of the earth and that nation Israel was formed and favoured by God and in God's blueprint, in the original design, Israel was established as a theocracy. That simply means that they were established with God as their king. They weren't to have an earthly king but they were to have God himself as their king. And you know under that theocracy they would have so many benefits and blessings. They would have God as their guide and their guardian. They would have enjoyed the special bestowment of God's favour. They would have God's own laws and rules and rulers set out. Now, of course, we know that the nation of Israel, after the period of the judges, wanted an earthly king, but ultimately, today, God is still the leader of his own people. But you know, the Gentiles, by contrast, were alienated from that privilege. They were alienated from the privilege of living under divine dominion. They weren't born under such a blessing. The Gentiles rejected God. God wasn't their king. So they enjoyed no favoured status, no special blessings, no divine guarding. Oh, they were without Christ. They had no saviour to hope in. were aliens separated from the Commonwealth of Israel. They didn't know what it was to live under the blessings of a theocracy but then Paul also says that they were strangers from the covenants of promise. Oh, being their king, God had made unbreakable covenants with Israel. And of course, that started with the supreme covenant in Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. But we can think of the Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant and these special unbreakable covenants that were based around national redemption and eternal blessing. And Israel always knew as a nation that they would be secure in the covenants of God. But the Gentiles didn't have such covenants. Do you know while God made great promises about the Gentiles, and they were even included in that covenant that was made with Abraham that he would be a father unto all the nations, but while God made great promises about the Gentiles, he never made any promises with the Gentiles. They never knew what it was to rest in the covenants of God. which then left them, as Paul says, having no hope. John MacArthur says those who have no Christ, no commonwealth and no covenants inevitably have no hope. The Gentiles had nothing concrete to anchor to. You see, with no past promises, they had no future certainty leaving them. with no present joy. They had no hope. They had nothing in life and they had nothing for afterlife. They had no hope. And what's the conclusion of it all? They were without God in the world. You see that little phrase, without God, it's the one Greek word, athios. It's where we get the word atheist. And it didn't mean that they didn't have God. But what that word there literally means is they did not know they would not believe and they could not know the one true God. Yes, by and large the Gentiles were very religious people. They were ultra religious but they were pagan in their religion. In fact, they had innumerable gods. Wiersbe cites a historian who says, apparently in Athens, the saying was that in Athens it was easier to find a god than to find a man. Remember on Mars Hill, when Paul Precy, as he passed by, he noticed an altar with an inscription to the unknown god. And they had made an inscription on this altar in case a god was missed. They were pagan. They were even pantheistic. There was those who believed that god was anything. inanimate and inanimate. In Romans 1 we know that the Gentiles rejected God and as a result they were left without God. They were worshipping gods of stone and they were without God. William Hendrickson, the Bible commentator, summarises the pre-conversion spiritual condition of the Gentiles by saying they were Christless, stateless, friendless, hopeless, and godless and you know that's what we were. This isn't just the Ephesians, this isn't the Gentiles generally, this is what we were at one time. We were Christless, stateless, friendless, hopeless and godless and yet look Look at the transformation in their position in verse 13 when God reached out to them and when Paul came and preached to them. As we read in verse 17, peace to them which were afar off because look at the contrast. Paul says, but now in Christ. Jesus. Just like verse 4, the bleakness is broken by a but, in verse 4 after setting the bleak position Paul says but God and now similarly in verse 13 after setting out the sea Paul says but nigh. The scene is reversed and time passed. The Jew was near and the Gentile was far but now in Christ the grace that had flowed towards Israel now overflowed towards the Gentiles. Positions are reversed. The Jews rejected Jesus and ended up afar off but the Gentiles received Jesus and as a result they ended up near and you know that's how we're brought near to God by receiving Christ. Truly we see here an extension and emphasis of God's character that he's truly not willing that any should perish. You see, for while the Gentiles did not occupy a place in God's patriarchal covenants, they did occupy a place in his eternal sovereignty. But notice, and don't miss this because this is for all of our hearts tonight, why did God bring the Gentile near? Well, look at what Paul says at the end of verse 13, they were brought near by the blood of Christ. Not through covenants or ceremonies, but Christ. You see, it took Christ to bring those which are afar off. Skivington Wood says, Jesus is the meeting point with God for all mankind. You know, sin took us away But sacrifice brought us near. we who were afar off without God having no hope. That's the state we should have been in and should have been left to die in but praise God tonight we're in Christ and because we're in Christ we've been brought near to God. Christ's blood alone broke the barrier that existed between us and God. It's the blood of Christ that was put over the no entry sign. J. Vernon McGee says that in the temple was the court of the Gentiles way off to the side. Gentiles were permitted to come but they were a way far off but now for the Gentiles who are in Christ all is changed. They were without Christ, now they're in Christ. The distance and barriers which separated them from God have been removed. They have been made nigh not by their efforts or merits but by the blood Christ and that's the same for us tonight. Oh we can say with that lovely, lovely poem, so near, so very near to God, nearer I cannot be for in the person of his Son I am as near as he. Oh what a wonder tonight that we who were afar off have been made nigh by the blood of Christ. Oh Paul in verse 11 speaks of two peoples in verses 12 and 13 he speaks of two positions concerning the Gentiles but in verses 14 to 17 Paul speaks of two products, two outcomes You see, having summarised in verse 13, Paul now extensively elaborates on the significance of this truth and what it is exactly Christ has accomplished upon the cross. He elaborates on the outcomes of Christ's sacrifice, what exactly it has accomplished, not only personally, but you could say nationally or globally. First of all, in verses 14 and 15, He says of how Christ has removed a partition. He says that for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to making himself of twain one new man, so making peace. We've already thought of the enmity and the barrier that existed between Jew and Gentile, not just spiritually, because Israel was hedged about by God. but literally. You see there Paul speaks about this middle wall of partition. That literally means this barrier, this hedge and Israel spiritually was hedged about in blessing by God that the Gentiles had no access to, but literally a physical fence existed in the temple, the meeting place of God and man. physical fence existed in the temple separating the court of the Gentiles from the rest of the complex. They couldn't get close. But Jesus on the cross broke that barrier down. You know in AD 70 that partition was literally demolished along with the rest of the temple itself but Paul saw it already destroyed, already abolished by Christ on the cross. Christ broke down that wall of partition and as a result Jesus hath made both one. In other words what? being said here in verse 14 is that converted Jew and Gentile, once separated, now stand on the same ground in Christ. Paul is saying here that there is no first and second class citizen. Paul is not saying that the Jew sits in first class in Christ while the Gentile, he sits in second class. No, no, Paul says that God has made them one, has given them an equal standing. You see, Jesus is the thing that unites them in peace. You know, once they were divided by the law, the Jew was very much separate in diet and in dress and in rituals and religion and so many things. There were so many things that created a barrier between the Jew and the Gentile, but Christ himself has broken that down and he is the one thing that unites us. You know, I thought about that. So often still we are marked by what divides us rather than what unites us. Isn't that right? So often we build barriers of disagreement to keep us separate. I'll never fellowship with him or her. I'll never go there because, you know, they're different to us. We create barriers of division, and yet here's the thing in Christ, and I'm not saying that we take this to its extremities, that we have anybody preaching in our pulpits because, well, you know, we're all one in Christ, but fundamentally and first of all, we are all one in Christ. First of all, that Christian that we won't look at or won't fellowship with because they're different to us or they belong to a different denomination, first of all, forget him and our denominations. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. God has broken down in Christ all the things that divide us. You know two genuine believers and two different theological pages are still one in him and they'll not agree in theology but they will agree on the object of their faith or should agree because that's the thing that unites us. In verse 15 Paul also teaches that on the cross Christ put away the law ordinances. You see he says having abolished in the flesh the yim that they even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. The Gentiles as we read in Romans chapter 2 had no law and yet they sinned without the law. The Jews boasted of their law and yet they sinned in the law. But praise God we read in Romans 10 and 14 that Christ is the end of the law. for righteousness to everyone that believeth." But this was a big issue. This was something the early church couldn't get its head around. Everything was going great so long as, you know, the apostles were reaching out to the Jews but when God commissioned Peter and then rose up Paul and others to go out and reach the Gentiles, well, the issues came into the church. You see, what the early church had a hard thing getting their head around is that Jesus done away with the law to create a place of equal footing in him. And you know what happened in situations like the Galatians and other places is there were Judaizers who come in and they believe that Gentiles should change. That they could be in Christ but they had to do it the Jewish way. And in some regards they were still boasting in the law. But what Jesus said here is, I've made an end of all those things so the Jew could not boast in the law and the Gentile need not bend to the law. Ruth Paxson says they met on the equality of sin and salvation. We need to remember tonight because it still exists today. There are still those who want to do away with grace and put us all under the law and they're still creating division in the church just as there was in those early days. We need to remember tonight that we're not under the law but we're in Christ and keeping the law isn't what earns us favour with God. Christ is an end of the law. Yes, the law still exists to show us the holiness of God and the standard that he accepts and if we love the Lord we should keep his commandments but we're not saved by the law and we're not under the law and Christ has made an end of the law and so we can't boast in the law nor need we bend to the law. That's what Jesus has done in his body. In this new body, the church, he's done away with the law. Oh, one of the products of Christ on the cross is the removal of a partition, but finally we see the reconciliation through a unison, because in the end of verse 15, he says that through the cross, Christ done it to make in himself of Twain, one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Do you know God did not bring these two into one body to still exist as separate entities? Nor did God turn Jews into Gentiles or Gentiles into Jew. That's what the first Bible conference was about in Acts chapter 15. How do we deal with these Gentiles coming into the church? And here's the conclusion Paul comes to in God and Christ has made in himself of Twain one new man. You see in Christ, Jew and Gentile titles and traits vanish. In Galatians 5 and 6 we read that in Jesus Christ Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Here's what both were to do if you were a converted Jew or you were a converted Gentile. No matter how pagan one was or no matter how ritualistic the other was, both were to forget those things which were behind them. And here in one body enmity became amity, foes became friends as both become new creatures in Christ and both take their place in one new body called the church. You see in the body there's no Jew and Gentile, there's just sinners saved by grace. But how then did God reconcile two irreconcilables, not through peace talks to find common ground. That's how our country has worked. Not through peace talks to find common ground because there's no common ground between Jew and Gentile, but again at the cross. And you know it's lovely what we see here. We've had the blood of Christ in verse 13, we've had the flesh of Christ in verse 15, but now in verse 16 we have the cross of Christ. And the cross is the means through which God accomplishes real reconciliation. Just as we close glance over to Colossians chapter number one. Colossians chapter one just over a few pages into Philippians and then into Colossians. chapter one and listen to what it says in verse number 19. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made peace through the blood of his cross by himself to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unprovable in his sight. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which is preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made. a minister. You see it's through the cross that God reconciled these two groups. He didn't ask the Jew to cast off and become more like the Gentile. He didn't ask the Gentile to become like the Jew but rather at the cross he brought the two together. You know he does something amazing here because we find that this reconciliation worked like a triangle. You see, both groups had to be reconciled to God vertically, whether Jew or Gentile, they were both separated from God by their sin. And it's at the cross God has reconciled God and man. But you know, both groups at the cross were reconciled to each other horizontally. You see, they were reconciled to each other horizontally. And the second is an inevitable result of the first where there's reconciliation between God and man, then there's a platform for reconciliation between fellow man. And you know tonight as we close the cross is still the place of ultimate reconciliation. John MacArthur says The cross is God's answer to Judaising, racial discrimination, segregation, apartheid, anti-Semitism, bigotry, war and every other cause and result of human strife. We live in a world striving for reconciliation but they're looking to every other method. But the method that God has chosen is the cross. All things are reconciled in Christ. And you know, here's a bitter relationship, Jew and Gentile, that on paper was irreconcilable, but in Christ, the two are reconciled. Here's the challenge I want to close with tonight. The only place still where broken, bitter relationships can be rightly restored and reconciled is at the cross. And you know often if our relationship with God is broken, our relationship with men will be broken likewise. And I wonder, is that where you are tonight? Is there a broken relationship in your life? Has there been a breakdown in your marriage? Is there a breakdown in your family? Is there a breakdown with a friend? Is there a breakdown with a colleague? First of all, I asked you to examine your relationship with God. Is it right? And you know if it's right then, you know both can still be fixed at the cross. No relationship is irreconcilable. Remember what sin divides, the Saviour through his cross can reconcile. And what a challenge that is when we live in a world that's so divided and how easily the devil can divide churches. It's important that we remain reconciled and we find reconciliation through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, here in verses 11 to 17, we have that time when two became one, when the church was born from these two opposites being united in one. Two peoples, Jew and Gentile. Two positions, the Gentile, oh, so far away, but now made nigh in Christ by his blood. Two products. O how that God, through Christ, has removed that partition and has reconciled through a union. And what a blessing it is to know tonight that we who were once afar off have been made nigh by the blood. Christ. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts and may you be encouraged as you study God's word. Next week we're gonna pick it up and finish off chapter number two from verses 18 to 22 but thank God for his word and for his great plan of redemption. Thank you for tuning in tonight. I'm going to close in a moment in prayer and I encourage you to spend just maybe the next few moments in prayer praying over these things thanking the Lord for what he has made us but also perhaps thinking about the needs of our fellowship at this time, the days that we're in, those who are sick, those who are struggling, those who just need a touch from the Lord. Let's pray together and then we're finished. Father, we want to thank you tonight for your word. We marvel at your great plan of redemption, that you take these two and make them into one. And Father, I thank you that we were part of the Gentiles, we were without God and without Christ. And yet, Father, we thank you we've been made now, we've been brought into this incredible relationship, not through ourselves, but through the blood, the flesh, and the crosswork of Christ. Lord, we pray that you'd help us even to search our hearts. Father, help us to see, is there things in our lives or relationships that need reconciled? And help us to take example from what you've done here. and help us to apply them to our own lives. Bless your people tonight, those that are struggling, sick and sorrowing. And Lord, continue to guide us as a church fellowship, we pray. Bless us in the Lord's day as we come together. But until then, keep your good hand upon us, we pray. And bless us in Jesus' name. Amen.