In your Bibles this morning, Ephesians 2.19. I've been preaching last, this is second week in Ephesians 2. Just taking one verse as my text. You can look at the rest of the chapter to know a little bit more about what the background is here, but I'm also gonna take a little bit of time to give you some background from scripture leading up to this. So Ephesians 2.19. Would you stand as we read God's word? Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the opportunity to come into your house to worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you for answered prayer. Thank you for the healing for Sandy. Thank you for others of our congregation that you have touched and are bringing healing to or have brought healing to. Be with Bob and Kay and family in their time of sorrow. We thank you for Kevin's life and that he knew you, Father. We thank you that you're a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You never leave us or forsake us. Pray that you would hide me behind the cross. Speak the words that need to be spoken today. There's someone here that does not know you, Savior, that they might come to know you, that Christians might be drawn close to you. Father, I pray for our nation. I pray for the world. There is so much turmoil and difficulty going on. I pray that you might intervene, that you might make yourself known, and that people might seek you, Father. Bless folks who are traveling or will be, and again, be with the Olindian Firm wherever they're at. Father, hide me behind the cross, let it be your message and not mine. Speak to the hearts of people and let the Holy Spirit take and interpret the message to the hearts of individuals. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. I want to give you a background that kind of leads up to this where Paul is writing a background from Scripture, just kind of really back to the Old Testament. You would say that this is the CliffsNotes version, if you would, so that you kind of understand briefly what we're talking about. If you've read in the Old Testament at all, done any studying in the Old Testament, been in Sunday school or whatever, you know that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. You know then that God created man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, he became a living soul. You know that God reached into the side of Adam, created a woman, and she was called alongside to be with him. God gave man a free will. He had the choice to follow God or not to follow God, but God said, here's what I want of your life, here's what I want you to do. In the day that you eat of this tree that I tell you not to eat of, you will surely die. Man chose to listen to Satan as Satan tempted him. Man and woman entered into sin and sin entered into the world, if you would. They had sons, Cain and Abel, in due process of time, and we don't know what all that came about, how God did it, but they came and brought sacrifices to God. Cain brought of the field of his grain. Abel brought of his animal stock, a blood sacrifice. God accepted the sacrifice of Abel and not that of Cain. Cain became very angry, was upset with God, and did not appreciate at all what was going on. And God told him, if you will, you can still be accepted. All you have to do is to follow me. All you have to do is to do what I tell you to do. But he chose not to, and so he was separated out. And he was angry, and he killed his brother Abel. Sin entered the world in more ways than one. We now have murder. The godly line continued through their son, Seth, if you would. And then you have the ungodly line of Cain. If you read in the Old Testament, you're gonna read a scripture that for some people is controversial. I really don't see controversy with it, but it says that the sons of God, went into women who were of men, if you would, and they began to marry. It also says there were giants in the land, and it talks of a lot of other things that are going on, a lot of people of renown at that time. Some people believe angels married human beings. I do not see that, especially where Jesus said. that you don't understand because angels are not like us. They do not marry and they are not given a marriage. What I believe happened was that the godly line of Seth continued to be godly. You've got the ungodly line of Cain who continued to be ungodly and you had intermarriage. You had intermarriage of godly with ungodly people during this time so that they were unequally yoked together. The world became corrupt because of sin. And because of the corruptness of that, we find that God decided to destroy the earth with a flood. He picked a man named Noah to build the flood. He preached righteousness for 120 years and literally had no converts except his family. He climbed into the ark, rode the ark out. When he got off the ark, being a human being in spite of all that God had done in his life, he became a vine dresser and got drunk. And when he got drunk, he lay in his tent naked. his son happened to walk in and see him. And instead of doing the right thing of getting a blanket and covering his father, he went out and told his brothers about what his father had done. Thus, the other two sons had to come in and see their father in this condition and took a covering, a blanket type thing, and backed in so that they did not look on their father's nakedness and covered him. After this, sin continues in the world. You see, God had started a whole new group, if you would, but Noah himself falls into sin. So then you have people multiplying on the face of the earth, and the world becomes corrupt. and they build a city and they build a tower that is called Babel. And they said, we are gonna make a name for ourselves. Does that sound familiar with anything you hear today? We're gonna make a name for ourself and we're gonna build a tower to God. We're gonna get to God the way we want to get to God. And God came down and looked at what they were doing and God stopped it. He confused their language. They were all of one language up until that point. He confused their language. They could not understand each other, and they scattered out across the world. Then God lets history go on, and as he does, he does something. God chooses to call a people unto himself. Now, you understand it all started with God. And God created man who should follow him in righteousness. But when given the choice, many men chose to walk in a different direction. So God now is going to choose for himself a chosen people. If you want to follow God, you can. If you don't want to follow God, you don't have to, but you face the consequences. And so what God did is he went down to a place called Ur of the Chaldees, and he called a man who was Abram. He was a Gentile. He was an idol worshiper. He was a heathen. He picked him out. He just came and picked him out, and he chose him. And he said, I'm going to offer you something, Abram. I want to make a covenant with you. I'm gonna bless you, and I'm gonna bless you, and eventually told him through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he gave them the sign of circumcision. So then as he moves them to the land of Canaan, he says to Abraham, or Abram at that time, he changes his name later, He said, I'm going to take you a land that you don't know anything about. I'm gonna multiply you like the sand by the seashore. I'm gonna make you into a great nation. And God made a promise that eventually that that blessing would go through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, through David, through Jesus Christ, right on down the line. There's something that's very interesting in chapter 15 of Genesis. Abraham asked, how do I know that you're telling me the truth? Didn't use exactly those words, but that's what he meant. How do I know that you're telling me what's gonna come true? How do I know it's gonna be reality? And God said, I want you to go over here and I want you to take some animals and he specified which ones. And he said, I want you to cut them in pieces and lay them on the ground and some birds as well. And then as darkness came, God walked between the pieces. Now we know that God is a spirit. We know that he's not a man like you and I are, but he was seen in the flame of fire in the presence of God as he came through. The significance was that in covenant days during that time, the way that you made a contract and solidified it was to split the animals and the two parties walked between the pieces. The difference in this was Abram did not walk between the pieces, God walked between the pieces. This was God's promise, it was not Abram's doing, it was God's promise and He said to him, you can count on it Abraham, This is what I'm going to do. I am going to make you a special group of people. And God literally instituted what we know as the Israelites. Now what were the Israelites formed for? They were to be God's people to take God's message to the world. They were not to be a people that were just of their own and look at us, we're special, we're better than everybody else, look what God did for us. That's what it became with many of them. And over the process of time, God had to discipline them, he had to put them in bondage, and various things happened. But the purpose was that they would show God to the world, that they would be God-fearers who would keep God's covenant and introduce people to a living God. The problem was that they became arrogant and proud. They did not understand that God had chosen them because he chose them on his own without any merit of theirs. They believed now that they were special and they were prideful, and many times believed they could get by with many things. You know, through history, in the Old Testament, that they became idol worshipers, many of them, they did all kinds of things, and God was displeased with them. With that background in mind, Paul is writing to the Galatians and Ephesians, and in this particular case, he's writing to the Ephesians. As he's writing to the Ephesians, he is saying to them in the verse that I read to you, now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. You understand that the only people who had a connection, a relationship with the true God, were the Israelites, the covenant people. The covenant people was through circumcision. And so therefore, you have the Gentiles out here, and Paul describes it over and over again. They were lost, they were without hope, they were without God, They were separated from the commonwealth of Israel. It was really a sad thing. Unless you were a Jew, you were a nobody. If you were a Gentile, you were considered a dog. And the Jew had no problem telling you that you were a dog and that you didn't belong. But God was really developing the Israelites to be a missionary people. They were to give to the world what it's like to worship the true God. Then as we read in Ephesians, Paul is saying to them that they had been dead spiritually. We talked about that a week ago. They were apart from God. They had no relationship with God and they had only this physical life but no spiritual life because man is made up of a body and a soul or a spirit And the body is one thing, it's fleshly, but the spirit is meant to have a relationship with God. If we do not have a relationship with God in our spirit, we are not born again, we are not a complete man. So in verse 11 in Ephesians that we read here, he said that we were, remember you were Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircumcised, but those who are circumcised in flesh made with hands, you were dogs in their eyes. So the Israelites would walk around and say, we're the circumcision, you're the uncircumcision, you're dogs, you're nothing, that's the way you used to be. But what he's writing to is Gentiles who have been saved. And he's saying to them, that is all changed in Jesus Christ. It is not circumcision or uncircumcision. It is not Jew, and that it is not Gentile. But God came in the person of Jesus Christ to make you not what you once were, but what he wants you to be, a new creature in Christ Jesus. At 12, he said, at that time you did not know Christ. You were aliens, outsiders, not belonging to the commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope without God in the world. Do you understand that there was only one choice, really? And that was you either serve the true and living God or you serve idols, which were no gods at all. So the Gentiles had only idols, they had nothing else. They were separated from the commonwealth of Israel, they had not been included in the family God wanted to include them, but they were cut off because Israel was not bringing them in. But verse 13, now in Christ Jesus, you who once were for off are drawn close by the blood of Jesus. You belong to a family. You're no longer a stranger. Once you belong to no one, once you were cast aside, but now you belong to Jesus because you've been born again. Jesus is our peace, in verse 14, who made both one and broke down the middle wall of partition, the separation between us. He has brought peace by being our peace. He gave a peace treaty with men, if you would, that Jew and Gentile and all men in Christ Jesus might have the same standing before God. I don't know that I can give you a good illustration today, but I'll come as close as I can. What if you came to this church today and outside at the parking lot where you parked, there's a great big sign that says, only Southern Baptist are welcome. Do not come any closer. And if you go beyond this line, your death is on you. That wouldn't be very welcoming, would it? What if you went to the Nazarene church, and at the Nazarene church, there's a sign out front that says, if you're not a Nazarene, don't pass this point, because if you do, your blood is on your hands. You go to any other church in town, and every one of them has a sign that says, unless you're a member of their group, don't come past this point, your blood's on your hands. Do you realize that's the way it was in the temple for Gentiles? There was a sign keeping you out of certain areas, told you not to go any further, and if you did, your blood would be on your hands. Where do you go to hear the gospel of Christ? Assuming there's no radio, assuming there's no television preachers, assuming that it's only coming out of church houses, out of religious people, where are you going to go? Because every place you go says, unless you're one of us, you can't come in. And that's basically what they were experiencing. Paul said, you were cast out. You were nobodies. You were considered uncircumcised. By the circumcised, you were considered dogs. But Jesus Christ came and made a peace with us, and he became our peace, breaking down the middle wall of partition. If you were to go into the temple, there were various sections in the temple. There is a sanctuary area, you have the Holy of Holies where only the high priests can enter once a year. You have the holy place where the priests minister on a daily basis. You have the court of the priest. Then outside of that, you have the court of Israel. And then you have the court of the Gentiles. and you have the court of women and they're all segregated. You go into here and you've got all these little gates and doors and separations and partitions. Can you imagine that? You walk in here today and let's say we let you in the door and you're not a part of Camp Verde Baptist Church. So we let you in the door, but we usher you back to the cry room and say, you got to stay back there because you're not worthy enough to come out here. Can you imagine what that would be like? Can you imagine what you would have felt? If there's a separation that only certain people can sit over here and only certain people sit back there and only certain people here and there, can you imagine what that would be like? But Paul said Jesus did away with all that. He broke down the doors and he broke down the walls and he broke down the separation. And Jew and Gentile and male and female, all are on the same footing. before God in Jesus Christ. Go a little bit further than that. In the Holy of Holies, between it and the holy place. There's this great big veil. And you remember at the death of Jesus Christ that that veil was rent in two. And now anybody could see into the Holy of Holies. Prior to that, if anybody went into the Holy of Holies other than the high priest once a year to offer the sin for the people, the sacrifice, they would die. Now that veil is gone. I can go into the Holy of Holies. You can go into the Holy of Holies. through Jesus Christ. We're a Baptist church and basically Baptist churches, this is not total, but basically Baptist churches have one pulpit and it's in the center of the church. And the reason we have one pulpit in the center of the church is because we believe that preaching is the primary function of the church in worship service, but we also believe that ordained and lay people both have the same right to stand in this pulpit if they're saved by Jesus Christ. There are other denominations, and I'm not knocking them, I'm just making a statement. There are other denominations that I've been in their churches that you have a central pulpit, or it may be off to the side, but then you have another smaller pulpit that's in another section. No one dares go into the main pulpit except the ordained clergy person. If you are a lay person, you would never step behind the pulpit for the ordained because you see, you were not good enough to do that. But you would have a separate one as a lay person where you could read or whatever you could do. Jesus broke that distinction. All of us are on the same level. I don't care if you're ordained or unordained, you have equal footing before God in Jesus Christ. I don't care if you're a man or a woman, you have equal footing before God in Jesus Christ. I don't care if you're Jew or Gentile, black, brown, yellow, whatever colors there are today, you're all one in Christ Jesus if you're born again. God abolished the enmity. He took it away so that he could make of himself of two, one new man, if you would. Now, I know this isn't something that can happen, but just imagine it could for a minute. Let's say that I've got two vessels up here. I've got two candle holders. One of them's made out of lead, and the other one's made out of silver. And I take the lead and I take the silver and I mix it together and it turns into gold. Now, I know that's not gonna happen physically, but that's a picture of what God did for us. He took the lead and he took the silver or whatever you wanna call it, out of the two vessels that were distinctly separate, he made one new person in Jesus Christ by saving Jew and Gentile. He came and preached peace to those that were far off. Can you imagine hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time? I've read stories about it. I've talked to people about it. But can you imagine being raised, I imagine most of you were raised in Sunday school and learned, can you imagine never having heard any of the Bible stories, anything about Jesus, And one day somebody comes up to you and says, you know what? You don't have to worship idols. You don't have to burn babies. You don't have to do a lot of good works. Jesus died in your place, was buried and rose again, and he wants to save you if you just invite him into your heart and life. Can you imagine the good news that is? That's what the Gentile was experiencing. He was cut off. He was a nobody. He watched all these Jews running around, going to the temple, cutting them out. They didn't have any part of it. Not trying to win them, not trying to bring them in. But through Jesus on the cross. We both have access. Now, because he lives, we are not strangers or foreigners, but we're fellow citizens. We belong. Can you imagine? Instead of a sign out front that says only Southern Baptists are welcome here, can you imagine a sign? We don't have it out there, but it should be out there, I guess. It really is out there, even though it isn't. Everyone welcome here. Everyone welcome here. This is a place for saints and sinners as well. Because even if we've been born again, we still are sinners. Everyone is welcome to come through those doors and hear about Jesus Christ. And everyone is welcome, if they will, to come to Jesus, confess their sin, ask him to save them, believe he died for them, was buried and rose again, and invite him into their heart, and they have eternal life. We're no longer strangers, but we're part of the family. Our foundation is built on the teachings of the apostles and prophets, he said, in the first 20, not built on them, but built on their teachings because they taught about the coming Messiah. And of course, the apostles talked about the Messiah. And Paul said, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the cornerstone that we're built upon. We're built together for a habitation, a temple of God through the spirit. Isn't it amazing how that God loves us? We were without Christ. We were aliens from the Commonwealth. We were strangers to a covenant promise. There was no hope. There's not anything sadder in the world than to not have hope. For a doctor to say there is no hope, there's nothing we can do for you. Without God in the world, Nothing sadder than living in the world without God. But Jesus changed everything. Jesus changed everything. There were proselytes to Judaism, and it's an interesting thing that they had. There were proselytes of righteousness, and there were proselytes of the gate, or sojournings. The proselyte of righteousness could be a Gentile who would come and say, I adopt Judaism. I will be circumcised. I will keep all of the covenants. I will keep all the feast days. They also baptized. And so they would be basically in full standing as a Jew. But there were some others that, that are the ones of the righteous, but the ones of the gate, the proselyte of the gate or the sojourner, they were the ones who said, I don't want to be circumcised. I don't want to take place in the feast and that kind of thing, but I'm going to follow the rules of Noah, if you would. And the rules of Noah, the Noah covenant, they saw it. They could establish laws and prohibitions, courts and a legal system. They did not blaspheme. They did not deny God. They did not have idolatry. They had no sexual immorality. They could not have adultery, no murder or bloodshed, not steal or do theft, not eat the flesh or the blood of a living animal. They needed to observe the Sabbath and they would not eat leavened bread during the Passover. They were partial Jews. They didn't want to go full-fledged, but they were admitted into the court of the Gentiles and could be a part of what was taking place there. I wonder if we realize the privilege that we have today to be a part of the family. You and I were one outcast and strangers. We were sinners by our nature, aliens by birth, if you would, but yet God through Jesus Christ came to save us and said, you're welcome here. The Jews missed what they were supposed to do. And today, basically the Jewish nation is 2% Christian, which means most of them don't know Jesus Christ and they still don't understand God's plan. But through Jesus Christ who came, he wanted us to be brought into the kingdom. Is the church doing the same thing today that the Jews did? Are we practicing spiritual egotism? Are we saying we're better than everybody else and if you wanna come, you can come? Are we really saying all are welcome here? come and find Jesus in this place. My dad was a military man, as most of you know, retired military. Spent many years at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and I lived on base many of those years, and part of the time I lived off base, because dad lived as a civilian in a town and drove to work. The town of Waynesville in Missouri was close to the army base. That's the closest town for people to go and buy anything. It wasn't a big town, but it had a town square, and it had different things in it. Many soldiers went there. You know who soldiers are. They're military men. They give their lives for our country if they need to. They fight for us. And they come, whatever colors there are, black or brown or white or whatever, you know, And they all serve and nobody asked them what color they are when they send them to the battlefield. But as a teenage boy, it broke my heart. I was in Waynesville one day and we were shopping. And I saw in the stores, whites only. I walked on down the street and I saw water fountains. This was in the 60s. Whites only. And it broke my heart. I had friends that were every color you could think of. They were my friends because we were on the army base together. But they weren't good enough to go to the stores in Lanesville. Oh, they were good enough to send overseas to fight, give their life. They weren't good enough to go in stores in Lanesville. They were good enough to go through anything, but they weren't good enough to drink at the water fountains there. It broke my heart. Wouldn't it be terrible if we gave a message that said, you're not welcome to come to Jesus? That's really what the Jews were doing for a long time. You're not welcome, you're just welcome to become a Jew, but you have to follow our rules. But they weren't really trying to set, because they themselves were going back into paganism. And Jesus came and said, it's all in the cross and the resurrection. It is not living a good life. It is not baptism. It is not circumcision. It is not becoming a Southern Baptist, but it's having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but I'm glad I've got a family I belong to. I'm glad I got a family, and it's not just the family in this room. but all born again Christians, whether they're Nazarene or Methodist or Christian or community church or whatever, if they're born again, they're part of my family. And Paul says, just be so grateful. You're not a stranger anymore. You're not an alien. You're not a Gentile. You're not a dog. But in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile become equal. But think about this. We don't become equal with the Jew. Jew and Gentile become one in Christ. You see, we don't come up to the level of the Jew. The Jew and Gentile have to come down to the level we realize we're sinners so then that we come up to the level of Jesus Christ. Our musicians are gonna come. We're gonna have a verse invitation. Do you realize what a privilege you have to be a part of the family of God? If you're a child of God, you ought to rejoice in it. If you're not a child of God, you gotta think about it and think, I could belong. You know, there was a time when Gentiles weren't welcome. Invitation wasn't given. Jews would look down on the Gentile. And I'm sure that still happens today. But the reality of it is, in Jesus Christ, we're invited not to become a Jew, but to become a child of the King. a child of the King, a fellow heir with Jesus Christ. The altar is open if you want to talk to me, if you want to pray, whatever you want to do, this is your time. I would invite you to come if God is speaking. Would you stand as we sing? Take up thy cross and follow me I heard my master say I gave my life to ransom thee Surrender your all Wherever He leads, I'll go Wherever He leads, I'll go Who loves me so, wherever He leads I'll go He drew me closer to His side, I saw I sought His will to now abide Wherever He leads, I'll go Wherever He leads, I'll go I'll go I'll follow my Christ who loves me so wherever He leads Would you be seated for just a minute? John, you want to come on up here. John and Mary talked with me this week and God's doing something in their life and he wanted to share something with us here. I invited him to share something with us today. John, we appreciate John and Mary around here and what they've done. They want to spend time with grandchildren too, lots of things. So let's pray for them as they seek for God's will for their life. Would you stand as we're dismissed in prayer? Chet Lender dismisses, please. See me through the shadows dim, o'er all the snowy sea. I take my cross. He leads, I'll go I'll follow my Christ who loves me so to Christ who loves me so. He is my Master, Lord, and King. Wherever He leads, I'll go. Wherever He leads, I'll go. Wherever He leads, I'll go. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so.