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Good morning. Thank you for giving
me the microphone. I can project my voice generally,
and last couple of times I found myself forgetting the microphone,
but thank you for giving it to me. Yeah, today we are gonna find
ourselves in Ephesians chapter two, and we are going to talk
about the household of God as we have just sung in worship. The second half of Ephesians
chapter two. As you're making your way there,
let me ask you, what do these words mean to you?
Unity, peace, reconciliation. Are these concepts or notions
that are part of your daily lives? I believe most of us, if not
all of us, desire peace and harmony. In our personal lives, among
our family and friends, in our communities, I believe we rarely
desire hostility and strife. But we find an abundance of hostility
and strife in the world around us. And we must ask why. Here are
a few examples. You will find a form of shallow
hostility, also known as banter, if you support teams in sports
and games. I have been guilty of this hostility
myself, engaging in vile banter with anyone who does not support
Manchester United, an English football club, even though I'm
not from England, but you can see this idolatry in me, which
I need to repent of. You may have experienced this
if you support hockey, baseball, any of that, but the force of
hostility increases as things get more serious, and it gets
into the realm of politics, nations, culture, ideology. We are all
exposed to news about political leaders and decisions that they
make, their choices, and fairly sure throughout history this
has impact on all people, but specifically on us in the past
few years, I'm sure you have observed ideological positions
causing major divisions in families, in communities, in society at
large, and sadly, even within the church. Here's the bad news. Hostility
between people supporting opposing ideas is the norm. In fact, there
is no ideological proposition that will truly unite us or have
a unifying effect on us, no matter what we do, no matter how much we
try. And the irony is that one of the commentators recently
said, the fan base of Manchester United is like Manchester divided.
So I just use that irony as an example of this unity that people
strive for in different places, but is not found. Now here's
the good news, as we will read. The apostle Paul will give us
that true unity, reconciliation, and peace are freely available. Where, you might ask. This is
the order that the Apostle Paul is illustrating in Ephesians
chapter two, verses 11 through 22, in the members of the household
of God. So the proposition, as we read
this passage, is that true unity, true peace, true reconciliation
is found only in the household of God and only through Christ. Let us then read Ephesians chapter
two, verses 11 onwards. You will find most of your Bibles
will say one in Christ as the short subtitle of this. Here
the apostle Paul writes, 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 the 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 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 the 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's briefly ask God to bless
his word. God, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for the one spirit that gives us the ability to
cry out to you, calling Father, Abba. We thank you, Lord, that
the blood of Jesus Christ and the cross of Jesus Christ has
made one people and given us adoption into your household.
We pray, Lord, that you would use your word mightily now. Give
us a spirit, help us to understand and see your word and see Christ
more fully, that we may conform to his image and that those that
know not Christ will be saved and be transformed by his grace. It is in Christ's name I pray,
amen. So what is the Apostle Paul saying
to the Ephesians in this passage? What does the Apostle Paul say
about the state of the Ephesian church? As I mentioned, the proposition
is that members of the household of God have eternal peace, reconciliation,
and unity in Christ Jesus. This is my summary. If I were
to summarize this entire passage that I read to you in one proposition,
this is one way of stating it. Members of the household of God
have eternal peace, reconciliation, and unity in Christ Jesus. Now, the way in which we are
going to understand this proposition is by four categories, or four
points. First, we look at who the Apostle
Paul is writing to. What is the Apostle Paul trying
to say to the Ephesian church in their context? Their past
predicament, which we find in the beginning of this passage,
the first couple of verses. Their reconciliation through
the cross, which is the center, and to borrow Pastor Josh's analogy,
this is the jelly in the donut. And then, their eternal state
is the last part, verses 19 onwards to the end of the chapter, where
we see this new state for the Christians. So first, the Ephesian
church. This is a little bit of contextual
understanding. If you search for the word Ephesus
in the Bible, you'll find a few places where this word is found.
It was an important city, and historically it was built by
the Greeks, and it was part of the Roman Empire. This location
geographically today is in present-day Turkey. The city was really famous
in its day because it had one of the seven wonders of the world
of the ancient times. The temple of Artemis, which
was constructed around 550 BC, was one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world. When Augustus became emperor
in 27 BC, the most important change was that he made Ephesus
the capital of the Asian pro-consul. He moved it from Pergamum to
Ephesus. And Ephesus therefore then entered
this era of prosperity, becoming both the seat of the governor
and a major center of commerce. According to Strabo, an ancient
Greek geographer, it was second in importance and size only to
Rome. So we are looking at a place
which is prosperous in the land and a people who have certain
influences which we will find in Acts 19. So while I'm describing
this, you can turn to Acts 19. We will look at Acts 19 briefly.
at a few points. Now, there's a little bit of
interpretive challenge, if you will, posed by some academics,
and I want to deal with that just in case there are some scholarly
in this congregation. There are three ancient manuscripts
where the phrase Ephesus is, or in Ephesus, which is verse
one of Ephesians, does not exist. And people tend to take that
to question the Pauline authorship, that is, the Apostle Paul wrote
this letter, and to question that whether this letter was
addressed to the Ephesian church. Now, there is no conclusive evidence
of that. I'm happy to discuss more details
of theological nitpicks with you after the service, but I
will say that there is no conclusive evidence to prove that the Apostle
Paul did not write this letter, or that the letter was not written
to the Ephesian church. So I'll just leave it at that.
Now Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 18 is the first place in the
Bible where we find a mention of the word Ephesus. It's in
the Apostle Paul's travel. So in 19, as we read in the beginning,
it says, and it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.
There he found some disciples, and he said to them, did you
receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said,
no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he
said, into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's
baptism. And Paul said, John baptized
with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe
in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus. On hearing
this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when
Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them,
and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about
12 men in all. So we notice that there are people
in Ephesus who were disciples, as is written in verse one, but
they were baptized by John the Baptist, And the apostle Paul
here baptizes them because Jesus Christ has already come. Then
we find in verse eight that he entered the synagogue and for
three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the
kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn
and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation,
he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning
daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years
so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord,
both Jews and Greeks. So this actually tells us that
the population of Ephesus had both Jews and Greeks, Jews and
Gentiles. This tells us that there were
some disciples there who were baptized by John. Also tells
us that the Apostle Paul went into the synagogue to reason
with the Jews and proclaim the gospel and some were stubborn
and continued in unbelief. So then we can see something
of a church plant in the Hall of Tyrannus. And obviously there
were other churches. We see that the gospel is going
forth because it continues for two years and all the residents
of Asia, which is the surrounding locations, heard the word of
the Lord, both in Jews and Greeks. So you can first see the people
groups that the Apostle Paul is writing to. Now that's not
enough. We need to continue in Acts 19
to see what was the background of these people. Because Jews
and Greeks is just somewhat reductive. I mean, the fact that there's
a synagogue, there's a lot more as we read it, because as I already
mentioned, the Bible, obviously concurs with the historian because
there is the temple of Artemis in this very chapter. But before
we go there we find a group of Jews who also existed perhaps
as a third group if you were to look at this. So as we read
the sons of Sceva, this next section verse 11 onwards, so
what was happening is the Apostle Paul now is doing mighty miracles. So verse 12, even handkerchiefs
or aprons that had touched his skin, that is the Apostle Paul,
were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them.
So as we know, this was again a parallel of the ministry of
Christ Jesus, the therapeutic ministry as it's called, where
there is miracles to affirm that this is a work of God. This is
to authenticate that God has sent, and Christ in this case
has sent the apostle Paul. as the apostle designate to the
Gentiles, which is what the apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians
later. Now we find something interesting. Verse 13, then some
of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name
of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying,
I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of
a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, but the evil
spirit answered them, Jesus I know, Paul I recognize, but who are
you? And the man in whom was all the evil spirit leaped on
them and mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that
they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became
known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks,
and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus
was extolled. Also many of those who are now
believers came confessing and divulging their practices and
a number of those who had practiced magic arts before brought their
books together and burned them in the sight of all. So now you
notice there is this almost animistic group of people and it's generally
applied here that these people had practices in the past of
magic of divination and other things who are coming and confessing
by way of seeing these miracles, beholding the power of God in
work and saying, we used to live this life. And this is important
because we are talking about the gospel breaking forth in
a pagan nation. Now the final part is if you
look down in verse 23, you will find a religious group, and this
is again, every time there's a religion, as Brother Jonathan
was talking about in Sunday school, there's an elaborate economic
system also around it, which was also the case in the temple
when Jesus was cleansing the temple. But you see verse 23,
about that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning
the way. Now the way, is the reference
here, this phrase, referring to Christians. Because also in
verse 9, the stubborn, unbelieving people in the synagogue were
speaking evil of the way. This is the way of the followers
of Jesus Christ. So the disturbance concerning
the way in verse 24 is for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith
who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to
the craftsmen. These he gathered together with
the workmen in similar trades and said, men, you know that
from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear
that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul
has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that
gods made with hands are not gods. And there is a danger not
only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but
also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted
as nothing, and that she may even be disposed from her magnificence,
she whom all Asia and the world worship. So you notice this is
pretelling this passage of what world religions look like. And
in this we find our existence, and we can perhaps relate to
this, that there are various idols. And one of them I expose
as the idolatry of my heart, if you will, in sports, in various
ideologies that we live in this world today. And you don't have
to go further. You can go to downtown Toronto
and you will find all of these practices, or maybe even Hamilton,
wherever, go to a downtown city center and you'll find people
trying to predict your future and giving you all sorts of things.
And there are, obviously, in our own day, the Temple of Artemis
doesn't exist as an Ephesus, but there are people who would
raise up the altars of Baal, whether it's climate, whether
it's a bunch of other things. But you notice, like, this is the
context of the people that the Apostle Paul is writing to. And
this letter is written like a sermon. And that's all I will say about
the context and now we can try and understand the three sections
of these verses. The letter to the Ephesian church
is written very much like a sermon and if you notice, Ephesians
chapter 1, 2, and 3 form one section, and 4, 5, and 6 form
another. And the dividing part is, if
you notice that in Ephesians chapter 3, at the end there's
a doxology and the Apostle Paul is praying. And when you read
this book completely, you would notice that the first three chapters,
the Apostle Paul is laying the propositions about our common
salvation in Christ Jesus, and then he goes into application. And so this is the context in
which the Apostle Paul writes to the strangers and aliens,
hopeless, without peace, which is the second pointer the state
of the Ephesian church, their past predicament, as strangers
and aliens. So notice with me the first couple
of verses in our passage today, 11 and 12, it says, therefore,
remember, the Apostle Paul is reminding the Ephesians here,
and he uses the word remember twice. Again, in the beginning
of verse 12, remember. What is the Apostle Paul reminding
these people? That they were Gentiles in the
flesh. They were called the uncircumcision
by the Jewish people by what is called the circumcision which
is made in the flesh by hands. So what is the implication of
that? Remember that you were, and this is really the main point,
you were at that time separated from Christ. These people were
separated from Christ in the past and Symptoms of that separation
was found in alienation from the Commonwealth of Israel, which
means the hostility between these two people groups. And they were
also strangers to the covenant, to the promise. But again, those
are symptoms. The fact that they were separated
from Christ actually resulted in the second half of verse 12,
having no hope and without God in the world. So we're used to
a pagan lifestyle, even though you live in relative prosperity,
hopeless, without God, strangers and aliens from the covenant
community of God. Most of us hopefully can relate
to this. Most of us, as far as I know, I certainly am, a Gentile
in this world. And in the past, before Christ
gave me new life, I was certainly without hope. I was certainly
searching, as all who were before Christ, searching for hope in
other things. And we were hopeless without
God. And so we come to the context
and the predicament. Now the Apostle Paul is giving
the solution, and this is the most powerful conjunction in
the Bible is the word but. But God, or but now in Jesus
Christ. So you see verse 13, but now
in Christ Jesus. We have this verse giving the
most glorious phrase to give hope to the hopeless. But now
in Christ Jesus. You who once were far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ. So notice the passive
verb here. It's not like the Ephesian church,
it's not like the people of Ephesus. Though they came and brought
their books and confessed their past wickedness and burned their
books around magic and other things, they were not the ones
who came to Christ. Christ is the one that came to
them. Because you see, you have been brought near. They were
brought near by the blood of Christ. So this passage now, this section
between verses 13 to verse 18, there are three words that I
want you to pay attention to or notice. The first is peace. Notice the
repetition of the word peace in verses 14, 15, and 17. Notice
the use of the word one, verses 14, 15, 16, and 18. Notice also
the opposite of the word peace, which is in hostility. And notice
how, because the Apostle Paul, in this few verses, gives us
a very, very clear picture of how this comes about. So he says,
but now in Christ Jesus, you who were far off have been brought
near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace,
who has made us both, that is the Jews and Gentiles, one, and
has broken down How, in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility,
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances,
that he might create in himself one new man, or humanity you
could say, in place of 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." Now notice
what the Apostle Paul is doing in these verses. Even though
he's primarily addressing the Gentiles, he's also by extension
talking to the Jews. And he's saying in no uncertain
terms that there is only one way to the Father. There is only one way to unity. There is only one way to eternal
peace. There is only one way to life.
And that one way is by the blood of Jesus Christ. That one way
is broken down in the flesh of Jesus Christ. That one way is
through the cross of Jesus Christ. So if you look at a group of
people, even though we are not aware of any dissension or faction
or any such thing in the Ephesian church directly by way of this,
there's certainly a threat of the traditions that they have
followed in their lives of pagan practices. And we find that in
First Timothy chapter one in verse three, the Apostle Paul
says, as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, speaking
to Timothy, remain in Ephesus so that you may charge certain
persons not to teach any different doctrine. nor to devote themselves
to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation rather
than the stewardship from God that is by faith." Now what is
the Apostle Paul saying here? He's saying that the Jews, even
though they had the covenant promise of God, their lifestyle,
as we read in Acts, for certain people groups, were not in accordance
with the covenant promises that they received. Which is what
we read in Jeremiah, that the covenant you have broken, so
I will make a new covenant with you, says Yahweh. And this covenant
is all it encompassing. So when Christ comes and inaugurates
the kingdom of God, He brings together, as the apostle Paul
would say in chapter three, the mystery of the gospel to truly
fulfill what he has told Abraham when he called him that all the
families of the earth will be blessed through this covenant. And this covenant is in the blood
of Christ Jesus. It is by his broken body, his
flesh, which is broken down the dividing wall of hostility. Now
I want to say something about this verse 15. By abolishing
the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might
create in himself one new man. Now, this phrase, by abolishing
the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances, what is, what
is Jesus, what has Jesus abolished? Has he abolished the law, the
Torah? No. The phrase here is nomon entolon
and Dogmasin. So basically, you can
translate roughly, the dogma of the rituals and the traditions
which were pointing forward to Jesus, either from the Old Testament
as shadows and types, or the dogmas and the rituals of the
elders which were not based in the Old Covenant anyways. This is what is abolished. It's
fulfilled, the old covenant is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. This
is as clear as it possibly can be that he has broken down. He
has not abolished the old covenant. He has actually fulfilled it.
What he has abolished is all of the traditions that were being
practiced by way of remembering Because he's already here. He's
already come and he's already inaugurated the kingdom. And
in Paul's case, Paul has met with the resurrected Christ. So Paul knows by experience,
he has experienced and he has proven, he's willing to die for
this, that in prison as he is writing to the Ephesian church,
he's saying that He's a prisoner of the Lord who is urging the
Ephesian church to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. So the implication of this is
that Christ Jesus is making all new humanity one, united, reconciled
us both to God in one body through the cross. Now, you may ask,
is this like a New Testament idea? Please turn to Isaiah chapter
57. The amount of times the Apostle
Paul uses the word one and the word peace, they're surely for
someone like the Apostle Paul, who is specifically providentially
educated in all of the scriptures, Surely he is bringing it from
the Old Testament. So Isaiah chapter 57 verse 14
to 19. Isaiah chapter 57 verse 14. Reads, and it shall be said,
build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction
from my people's way. For thus says the one who is
high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.
I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is
a contrite and lowly spirit. to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite, for I will not content
forever, nor will I always be angry, for the spirit would grow
faint before me, and the breadth of life that I made, because
of the iniquity of the unjust gain, I was angry, I struck him,
I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in
the way of his own heart. I have seen his ways, but I will
heal him. I will lead him and restore comfort
to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace,
peace to the far and to the near, says the Lord, and I will heal
him. Do you notice that this is where
this peace and reconciliation can come from? This is exactly
the peace where Christ is our peace. This is the one who has brought
us near. And this is what leads to the
last peace. point, which is the eternal state.
Verse 19, the Apostle Paul, after laying it all out, says to the
same people who had this past life, but has been transformed
by the grace of our God, by the blood of Jesus Christ, through
the cross, the Apostle Paul says, so then
you are no longer strangers and aliens. You did not have the
passport to the nation of Israel, you did not have the commandment,
you could not go into the synagogue, you could not go into the place
of worship, you could not go into the temple, you were Gentiles,
no. You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow
citizens of Israel, no. Fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God. So this is where we see
the function, the form and the function of Israel as a people
of God. It was always meant to be this
way, that it is a household of God, a people of God. Now the
Lord, as he promised in Jeremiah in the new covenant, as we see
here, he's fulfilling that promise, and this is what the Apostle
Paul is revealing. And he says, verse 20, built
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is 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 it's not about the books that
you burned, it is not about the life that you lived, it is not
about a place, but it is about the household of God that is
found in Christ alone. It is founded on the cornerstone
that is Jesus Christ, and the whole structure is being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. As we're studying
the Psalms of Ascent in our prayer meetings, we read through Psalm
127 a couple of weeks back, and it begins, unless the Lord builds
the house, those who build it labor in vain. But here we find
that the Lord is building the house on the cornerstone that
is Jesus Christ, in whom the whole structure is being joined
together, grows into the holy temple. So it's not just a household,
it is a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also. So now he goes
from a corporate to personal. In him, you also are being built
together, plural, into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Do you see, Christian, that this is what the Apostle Peter is
writing, that each one of us founded on the cornerstone, living
stones joined together to build this temple of God. So each one
of us are being built together as a dwelling place for God by
the Spirit. By the way, in the Ephesian epistle,
the letter, We get all the three symbols that is used, all of
the three ideas that the Apostle Paul uses for the church and
its relationship with Christ. We see the bride in marriage
with the bridegroom, we see the body whose head is Christ, and
we see also the household or the building, if you will, for
the lack of another term. So in Christ we are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Which
basically takes this group of people who were strangers and
aliens without hope. brings them into fellowship and
unity together. This is the unity that I would
never find even if I were to sit in the hallowed ground where
Manchester United plays. That's like a tight example.
I wonder why I keep repeating that. The idea is that you are
never going to find unity Even if we were to say, and this is
perhaps a little edgy, but even if we were to say Canada, unite
under the flag, that's not gonna be enough. I mean, we find people
south of the border, they are quite patriotic and they would
do awkward things. But none of this unity will unite
us the way the Bible says Christ will. So there's only one way
to be reconciled. There's only one way to be, found
in harmony, in unity, as one people, it is by the blood of
Jesus Christ, through the cross, by the breaking of his body that
has taken place, because right now, he reigns at the right hand
of God. And so what do we do with this?
Notice how I didn't talk about the differences between the circumcision
and the uncircumcision. They started with the issues
of the baptism. It takes the focus away from Christ. The point
is Christ Jesus is the source of it all. It doesn't matter
where we came from. So individuals, so what do we
do with this? This is what we do. If you are
not part of this household of God, if you are not experiencing
this peace and harmony and you are living with burdens, this
is what the Apostle Paul writes in the passage before. Because
notice our passage, our text started with a therefore. So
the Apostle Paul has already laid out the argument for each
individuals. And he's saying now therefore
remember, So why, we may ask, what do we do with this? Because
the chapter two begins and says, and you, and I like you once,
and all of us who are in Christ Jesus as well, and you were dead
in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following
the course of this world. This is the Ephesian church.
This is me in my past walking according to all sorts of weird,
foolish, ungodly ideologies, following the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath. like the rest of mankind. Folks,
this is brothers and sisters where we were and some of us
probably are. So if you're visiting here and
you do not know Christ Jesus, this is what the apostle Paul
says in verse four, 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 raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. So if you are feeling something
like this, you feel like you are under debris of a collapsed
building and you cannot see any light and you see a faint voice
saying, Christ Jesus can redeem you and give you new life. This is what the Apostle Paul
is saying. We were dead, we couldn't do anything. We were dead in
our trespasses and God, as if it were plunged into the depths
of the debris, lifted us out and gave us new life. Because
he is rich in mercy because of the great love that he has with
which he loved us. And he's made us alive together
with Christ. So friend, if you are, sensing
a tug, a pull in your conscience, I would say, look to Jesus Christ. He is the founder and perfecter
of our faith. He is the first witness, the
firstborn from the dead, the one who is the way, the truth,
and the life. Come to him in surrender. He
has more mercy than we have sins. As we sing, his mercy is more.
And for the saints of Trinity Baptist Church, the Apostle Paul,
gives us very clear directives. As we wrap it up, Ephesians 4
verses 1 through 6. This is what the Apostle Paul
says. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk
in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit,
just as you were called to one hope, the one hope that belongs
to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and
in all. I must confess that this is a
hard saying. Because you hear words like humility,
gentleness, patience, bearing with one another. And I would
confess that for sure, as someone saved at a later point of time
in my life, I've had all of the opposites of those words. And
I can in that way relate with the Ephesians. But in Christ,
and through Christ, we receive the will and the strength to
obey. And that's what we plead for.
Amen.
Members of the Household of God
| Sermon ID | 31225223152375 |
| Duration | 41:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 2:11-22 |
| Language | English |
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