We read once again our text, Ephesians 2, beginning with verse 11. Wherefore remember that ye, being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision 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 nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one and has 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 make in himself of twine one new man, so making peace, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace unto you that were far off and to them that were nigh, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye know more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God. and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Most holy God, we now come to hear your word preached Lord, we pray that you give me grace as I bring your word, that it would be clear, that it would be rightly divided, that the truth of your word would not be hidden, but be made manifest. For indeed, that is the calling of any herald of your gospel, is to make your word clear and manifest. Give us all ears to hear your word. that we would not be unprofitable hearers, that Satan would not snatch the seed of your word, that the anxieties of this world would not choke out your word, that we would not have a shallow faith, but a deep-rooted faith that abounds in fruitfulness of God. We confess in ourselves we would be unprofitable hearers. But by your spirit, by the work of Christ, you make dead men's bones to hear your word, Give us ears to hear this hour. In Christ's holy name do we pray, amen. In our previous study of Ephesians, in the first half of chapter two, we saw the reconciliation that we have given by Christ unto God, that we were rebels to God, We were his enemies, we were driven by the spirit of this age. And yet God, out of his infinite mercy, redeemed us and brought us into fellowship with him. That he sat us with Christ, that he made us co-heirs with Christ. As it says in chapter two, verse five, that we were quickened with Christ, that we were raised with him, that we were made to sit with him in heaven places in Christ. And so the first, 10 verses of chapter 2 speaks of our condition before we knew God, when we were enemies to Him, and then what God did to reconcile us unto Him. The following 11 verses speak of a reconciliation, but a different reconciliation that we saw previously. Previously, it was our reconciliation to God. This is our reconciliation one to another, that we were not only enemies to God, but we were enemies to one another, specifically in the context of The first century, it was enmity between the Gentiles and the Jews. So we were foreigners to the people of God, but Christ has brought us together with his people and made us a holy people and temple in the Lord. And that's what this chapter teaches. So first that we were foreigners to the people of God, we begin with verse 11. He says, wherefore remember. After showing that God reconciled us, he tells us to remember. This is seen throughout the scriptures. It implies that we are so prone to forget. We're so prone to forget so many things that we hear that we grew up hearing. And Paul, as Peter does in his epistle, he says, remember, bring this to mind. As a psalmist says, recounts the works of God, so too is it good for us to recount who we were before Christ so that we may know who we are now, being brought together with him. That he were, in times past, Gentiles in the flesh. This word Gentiles is not some sort of race that died off. It simply is the word nations. That you were members of the nations in the flesh. And it's used in contrast to Israel. And we see a shift in the argument before we saw in chapter two, he's saying, we were all aliens to God, Jew and Gentile. He first points to them that you were dead in your trespasses, and then in verse three, he says, among whom we also had our conversations, referring to the Jews. But in this chapter, in this portion, in verse 11, he's saying, you Gentiles, he was writing to Gentiles, he was writing to a congregation that consisted predominantly of Gentiles in Ephesus. He says, you Gentiles, who are called uncircumcision, but that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, pointing to their condition, that they were uncircumcised, and this uncircumcision is not, well one, it's not the, don't think of circumcision and uncircumcision in the medical use that we use it today, with some mark, those who are the people of God and those who are not the people And when he's saying in the flesh, he's not saying as if, oh, it was just a worldly circumcision. No, it was a circumcision given by God to Abraham. It was a circumcision that God put, it was a division, a dividing wall that God put between Jews and Gentiles. And it's in the flesh referring to, it's not the spiritual circumcision, but it is the circumcision that marks the people of God from the others. And throughout the Old Testament, we see God setting apart a people. We see predominantly first with Seth and Cain, the sons of Adam and Eve, that Seth was going to bring forth the godly line and Cain brought the ungodly line. And then we see in the Tower of Babel when God, all the nations were united and then God divided the nations and he Separated their languages and that was God dividing to make a people. He left Eber there the son of Seth or the descendant of Seth which would come the Jewish nation and so God is Judging the nations and sending them away and preserving His people and then we see with Abraham that he sets apart one son of Eber to be to have the mark of circumcision and And which again is dividing people. You see God now removing this people. I want to emphasize that this is a division wall that God put. He made his people with Abraham and he, as Paul says in Acts 17, that he left the nations to do as they want. He had patience and he left them. He said that was you. You were the uncircumcised. You were not part of the people of God. You who are uncircumcised by the circumcision made in the flesh made by hands. And what is that condition? Again, this shows you that this is not a demeaning thing against circumcision, but this is God's circumcision. What does it mean to be without circumcision? It means that you are without Christ. You are not the people of God. You are not part of the people of God. God left the other nations to do as they would. And this is important to remember because none of us, whether we're black or white or Asian or Hispanic, none of us were the people of God. None of us are Jewish, and even if we have Jewish in our blood, we're not the pure descendants that God preserved. We are all Gentiles, no matter our skin color. The Bible makes no sort of distinction between all the races that we do today. It's either they were Jews as the people of God, or they were Gentiles. They were the other nation. Those who were left to themselves. So we are all that, and that we were without Christ, because Christ was in the midst of his covenant community in the Old Testament, through types and shadows, through the sacrificial system, through the right of circumcision, through the priesthood, through the reading of the law, that Christ was there, and we, our descendants, our people, the Gentiles, were not. And God just left us to do as we will, left our ancestors, wherever country that is. What else does it mean? It means that we are aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, or the nation of Israel. That we are not part of them. We are not part of the covenant community. And strangers to the covenants of promise. The God from Abraham to Moses to David was making a covenant with his people that promised a seed that would bless the nations and that he set apart a nation in which Christ was manifest and proclaimed through this covenant. And he's saying, you weren't part of that. You were left to that. You were without that. Having no hope. We had no hope because the religions of this world offer no salvation. Whatever our religion is, was There's no hope of salvation apart from Christ. And so to not be part of that That's the greatest combination to not to be the uncircumcision To be not part of the covenant community of God to be not part of Israel was to be damned It was to have no hope And he's saying that was you having no hope, and without God in the world, the Greek word here is where we get the word atheist. And it's interesting that often the atheist is the one who says that there is no God, and today that's how we use the word, but in the Greek it means those who, not those who reject God, but those whom God has rejected, those whom God has left. And that's what he's saying, that we were, that we were without God, that God rejected us. And he left us to our own devices. So what is this, these first few verses, what should this teach us? What should this recall to us? One is that we should remember that we have no right to be part of the people of God. That God set that dividing wall and he left the nations to do as they wish. And we have no right in ourselves We live in a world that says, no, God is obligated to save me. God is obligated to offer me the gospel. God is obligated to offer the gospel to the pagan nations. God is obligated to offer everybody a chance. And the Bible says, and Paul says, no, that wasn't you. You weren't part of that. God left you. We have no right in ourselves to be part of the covenant community of God. So what a blessing it is. And we will see that as it is elaborated. But what a blessing it is that God out of his rich mercy has brought us into this covenant community. Because he could have justly and rightly left us to ourselves, left us to our idolatry, left us to our superstition, left us to our idol worship. And he would be just. He would be right. I mean, his name would still be glorified and praised for eternity. But also, teaches us something about the covenant community. How Paul makes a distinction that we were, without being the uncircumcision, being apart from the commonwealth of Israel, is to be without God. We live in a world that says, it's just Jesus and me. I don't need the church. I don't need God's people. It's just Jesus and me. Well, Paul says, If you're without the covenant community, you're without God. You're doing your own thing. God brings salvation through His Church as a means to an end. It's not that the Church adds grace to you as Roman Catholics believe, but rather that the Church is how God has pre- or foreordained the means to which salvation is brought. the means in which the word is heard, the way in which the word is preserved as the church has kept his word in their midst throughout the ages. And so it's why the theologians of the old would agree with the statement, Protestants and Catholics, but the significance of the Protestants, that outside of the church there is no salvation. Because it's within the community of God that God brings forth salvation. through his word preach and through the encouragement of the saints. But that was our condition. We were without God. We were without Christ. We had no hope. In verse 13, we see the shift. We saw the transition from verse three to four where we were given to our lusts but God. And now we see the transition from Verse 12 to 13, we were alienated, we were without Christ, but now in Christ Jesus. So you see the, but God, but now, but in Christ Jesus. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, who are us, we were the uncircumcised, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So we were far off, we were without Christ, but now we are brought in near to Jesus Christ. Verse 14 is the explanatory statement. How? For he is our peace. Because he is our peace. He's the one who made peace. He's the one who brought peace. Who hath made both one. He will elaborate that. But he's the one who brought peace to Gentiles and Jews. And he's also the one who brings peace from Gentiles one to another. Because We are separated as a nation to divide us. And so, yes, all of us can be in unison and say we were without Christ, that we had many other gods. But the thing is, we also had different gods from one another. We had different nations from one another. We had different beliefs. And so we were not only at war and alienated from the kingdom of God, but we also alienated from one another, making war with one another. So he had made both one. How? How has he made both one? That he has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. And that is the nation-state of Israel. It was the circumcision. This is important that when he's referring to the enmity, when he's referring to the middle wall of partition, he's not referring to sin here. He's referring to removing and ending the nation-state of Israel, the covenant community of Israel, and opening the gospel to the rest. Ending circumcision, ending those rights that were ordained by God that divide us. And so the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished the enmity in his flesh, having abolished in his flesh the enmity. How did he abolish in his flesh the enmity? By fulfilling what the old covenant pointed to. He fulfilled the sacrifices by being that ultimate sacrifice. He fulfilled the priesthood by being that priest. He fulfilled the circumcision by now offering circumcision to the heart. He brought down the eminent. He fulfilled the promise to Abraham. The reason the whole covenant community of Israel was set apart was to bring about the Messiah. That's why Many believers not until recently don't believe that there's some sort of second plan for Israel to establish a new nation But why because the purpose of the nation state of Israel was to bring about the Savior and Christ coming He brought down that state and now the gospel is open more broadly even the law of commandments contained in ordinances and that's exactly what he abolished he abolished the former covenant. For to make, why did he do that? Why did he break down the old dispensation, the old covenant? For to make, or create, in himself, of twine, one new man, so making peace. This is how he makes peace. He makes peace by making one new man. By making one people of God. He doesn't make peace by reparations. He doesn't make peace by geopolitical nations. He makes peace by making one new community, a community that no longer finds their identity in race or in nation, but they find their identity in Christ. that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross. And so by the cross, and this is how, again, how he does it. Not only does he abolish the enmity, but now he brings this one body to God. He doesn't bring, okay, here's the Jews entrance, and here's the Gentiles entrance. No, he brings, he breaks the system because he fulfilled it, and now brings that covenant community in peace with God, having slain the enmity thereby. and came and preached peace unto you that were far off and to them that were not. And so the same one who broke down the enmity now came and preached peace to who? To us and to the Jewish community. And we see this in the first century. The gospel went both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. But it's the same gospel. It's the same message. He did not go to the Jews and tell them one thing and go to the Gentiles and tell them another thing. He told them the same message and brought them into one community. For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. So through the same mediator, through the same spirit, we all come to the same Father. And that's the union between the Jews and Israel now, is that Christ abolished it and brought us into unity. Now, what can we learn about these passages is that Christ is the one who brings reconciliation. He's the one who accomplishes it, and he does it through the same way to each one of us. It doesn't come from other things. It comes from hearing the gospel, seeing ourselves as sinners, seeing our need of Christ, and coming to that, all of us coming by the same Spirit through the same mediator unto the same Father. And we find our union, how? By being united to Christ, we are united to one another. We see that manifested in local churches, where we come from all different backgrounds, we come from all different economic statuses, we come from all different hobbies, from all different races, and yet, because Christ has brought us together, Christ has united us, we all come and hear the same word preached. We all come and sing the same songs. We all come and take up the same table, the same sacrament. And we have true reconciliation. The reconciliation is not something to hope for in a nation. It's something that is to be walked in and realized today, right here, right with one another. So one another is of the gospel. We see in passages such as Colossians where he'd speak of all the Scythian barbarians all being united by one gospel. Jews, men, women, all brought together by Christ. And now, this one body that now is all brought together and reconciled, is now being built into something. And we see in verse 19, first he recapitulates what we were. Now therefore we are no longer strangers and foreigners. We are no longer what we were. We are no longer outside of the covenant community. But are fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God. We are fellow citizens, and the word foreigner here is a word that, in the Greek, septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament, meant, if you remember the Fourth Commandment, the stranger within your gate, it refers to a stranger in the covenant community who could be fed less rice, ultimately. He could be held as a slave. He didn't have to be released. He was not a full citizen. And Paul's saying, that's not you. You're not at people with lesser rights in this covenant community. There's not the Gentile Christian and then the Jewish Christian is, he has the special rights, he has the kingdom, he has these other benefits. No, he's saying, no, we're all brought into one fellowship, one nation, a spiritual nation. We're fellow citizens and of the household of God, of the family of God. We all have Christ as our elder brother. We all have God as our father. And on a side note, that is the only we, the church, true believers, are the only people who are part of the household of God. God is not the father to everybody. Christ is not the brother of everybody. He's only the brother to his people. What are we, and what is he making? He said in verse 20, and we, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So he's moving from this household now to a building, and he's saying you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And I believe in light of Ephesians, this apostles and prophets is not referring to the apostles of the New Testament and the prophets of the Old Testament, but rather we see in chapter three, verse five, that the mystery of the gospel is revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. And we see in chapter four, verse 11, when Christ ascended on high, he gave some apostles and some prophets. So I see here that the apostles and prophets that the church is being built on in this context is the prophets, the apostles, or the apostles and the New Testament prophets. There were New Testaments in that time, prophets who did not speak Well, God moved my heart, but they spoke the authoritative word of God. They spoke true revelation that was authoritative. And that is what Paul is saying is built on. They're built on the New Testament revelation in which we find this combination here in the scriptures. And so he builds them upon that revelation of God with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. The cornerstone still used today in masonry and construction is the stone in which, the first stone that is placed, in which all the other stones find their reference. And so Christ is the reference point to the rest of the building. They'll all find their reference to him and we all find our union to him. We are united, why? Because we're all in reference and united to Christ. And so we're built upon the apostles and find our reference in Jesus Christ. Verse 21. in whom all the building fitly joined together, in whom is in Christ the building all fitly joined together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. And so you can see the allusions to the Old Testament. Before it was the nation, that you were now part of the new political nation, as it were. Not a political nation the way you think of it, but a new nation, a new Israel. And now he's referring to a new temple. Not the temple made of stones, but the temple that Solomon built, but a spiritual temple, where we are the bricks, as it were, and Christ, by his spirit, dwells in our midst. In whom ye also, and that's a great privilege, you Gentiles, are now part of the symbol. Ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the spirit. The being united by the spirit unto God, we have now been made the dwelling place of God. So a few concluding applications is one, that we are not lesser members, none of us are lesser members because of our background or of our race or of whether we're Jew or Gentile is that God united all by Christ to be together and that we all have equality in the spirit. There's no hierarchy of priesthood and then the stranger within the gate. No, we are all together as people of God. We all have equal access to Christ. In a point, an application we can see from being built upon the apostles and the prophets is this is a mark of a true church. The true church is founded upon the apostles and prophets, and then Christ is the reference point. And the local churches and true churches that we see today are manifestations of that one true church, which is God's people from Eternity from the foundation of the world to the end of the age all of God's elect But it finds its manifestation in local churches, and that's how we find and determine a local church is one way we see other marks, but is that they are built upon the scriptures and I'm building upon man-made tradition and they are united to Christ they Worship Christ they do all to the glory of Christ and that is the mark of a true church. And then to think about that we are the temple of God, that this local church is a manifestation of the temple of God. In the temple, you read the Old Testament, you see the great reverence. You see the sons of Aaron being consumed in fire because they approached God in an unholy, in an unengraved way. You see all the particularities in Leviticus in which the priest had to take to enter into the Holy of Holies. Every place where they put blood on his ear and on his toe was important. Everything he did had to be precise. And so, yes, we have liberty in Christ that we don't follow all those particulars. And yet, that reverence, the solemnity, the gravity, should still be there, should still be the same. And where is that same? It's not because we enter in a building that has a steeple, but because God's people have gathered to worship, that we should approach this time, not as any other time in the week. We can find ourselves concentrating on so many things throughout the week, and then we gather here to worship, and we have all these worldly thoughts, but we should remember that we are gathering into God's temple, right now, at this moment. God is here with us by His Spirit, as His Word is proclaimed. And that is a great joy, too. Not only do we come in with gravity, we come in with solemnity, but we also come with joy and gladness, and God is here with us, visiting us. We can long for the manifestation of the Shekinah glory as it would come down upon the temple But Peter says we have a much surer word of prophecy, the word preached. The word, the sacrament taken, the song sung, the communion of the saints. This is the manifestation of Christ on earth. This is the manifestation of Christ through his spirit. So let us leave this place with joy and gladness and solemnity and let us take a great remembrance of we have no right to be here. And yet, God has brought us here. He's made us his people. In conclusion, I would plead with you, if you do not know Christ, that you are still, you're an atheist, as it were. God is apart from you. You are without Christ. You are without God. He has rejected you rather than you rejecting him. And yet, the gospel has opened up. has opened up to all who will believe, who will turn to Christ for the free salvation that he offers. And he offers it today. It's not by walking in an aisle. It's not by praying a prayer. It's by by faith coming to Christ as your Savior, as your Redeemer, as your Lord, as your minister. And he can save you this very moment. He may save you with great emotions and Ecstasy or he may save you just by a comfort in your heart that you trust in him and rest upon Let us go with this new this remembrance of who we were and who we are in Christ Jesus let us pray Gracious Heavenly Father. We thank you for the word that you bring to your people that we were enemies your enemies and we are enemies one of another and Yet out of your infinite mercy, you've brought us together in Christ. You have made us a holy temple unto you. We are your temple. We are where you are manifesting yourself today. You don't manifest yourself in the White House or in all those other exciting events that people may go to. but you manifest yourself in the global gathering of your people, whether it is a few people or a larger church. This is where you are, Lord. We thank you that you have not made any of us lesser citizens. Those who are your people are your people. We have all access to you. We can all pray to you. We can all approach you, Lord, whether we are young, as a child whose beliefs or whether we're a man or a woman, we all have equal access to you, Lord. And we thank you for the reconciliation you have given us in Christ, that you have made us one people, that you have broken down not only the partitioning, the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles, but also through various nations and races, that you have broken it down by your gospel, Lord. You have made us one people. We thank you and we praise you. In Christ's holy and precious name alone do we give praise. Amen.