When you gather in hymn, turn your hymn books number 497. 497, and let's just go ahead and sing that. Oh, heavenly God, inspire my soul with thy immortal way, and teach my heart And he's my God, the Savior of me Here for the life and for the love In faith and in God O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there This is the power of the world. One thing goes good when hungry die. And the other thing goes bad. For me alone, I don't regret It is my home, my home My home, my home, I take the flight Ah Good evening and welcome to worship this evening. As we draw on our hearts and minds together, I'd like to sing from the 29th hymn. I'd like to hear you sing, rather, from the 29th hymn. So I'll line this first verse and we can sing this together. Once more before we come before our God, once more his blessing asks. O may not duty seem a load, nor worship prove a task. Lord, wouldst Thou do me a favour? Are Thou quite with me, Spirit of the Spirit? Or am I in Jesus' name? Do Thou hear When we receive the word, we stand on a cross. of gratitude and thankfulness is all. Beauty of the heart is the beauty of blessings too. I was kind of drawn to this little hymn here, mainly because of this third verse. May we receive the word we hear, each in an honest heart. Hoard up the precious treasure there and never with it part. So as we draw our hearts and minds to worship here this evening, I have just a few thoughts I'd like to share with you. I would like to read from Matthew 6, just a few verses. Matthew, the sixth chapter. I'll just begin reading at the 19th verse. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And we'll stop there. I was mainly interested in the 20th and the 21st verse, laying up treasures in heaven. And then where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. As I was thinking about this a while back, I've come to think of a time back in history when men We're thinking more of the treasures on earth rather than the treasures in heaven. On January 24th, the year of 1848, a man by the name of James Marshall found gold in the American River near Sutter's Mill, California. Word soon spread of this discovery and it is estimated that between 1848 and 1855, that upwards of 300,000 people traveled to the California to seek their fortunes. Throughout 1849, people borrowed money, mortgaged their properties, or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. Some traveled by land over the mountains, and others sailed by ship. Many of those people died making the journey. This became known as the Great California Gold Rush of 1849. It is estimated that 750,000 pounds of gold was discovered during this period of time. The gold miners were so eager to get rich that many of them suffered from loneliness, homesickness, isolation, physical danger, bad food, bad water, and illnesses. Many more people died because of the poor living conditions that they had. Unfortunately, many of the 49ers, as they were known to be called later, they had their focus on earthly treasures instead of laying up treasures in heaven. And as I did a little self-examination of my own heart, as I thought about this, it's like, I need to pay close attention to where I'm laying up my treasures as well. A few more verses I'd like to read is found over in Matthew 19. Matthew 19, I'll begin reading at verse 16. And behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto them, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto him, all these things I have kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. I think we'll stop reading there. In this chapter, the way I see it is Jesus is more interested in us following him, of course, than any treasure we might stack up here on the earth. Jesus knew the heart of the young man and that it was not following the will of God as well as he thought he was. So how can we lay up treasures in heaven? There was a, ran across this, I'm not even sure exactly who wrote it, but I thought it was well penned and I'll share it with you. Four points. How can we lay up treasures in heaven? One, we need a new heart. To desire the things of heaven, we need a transformed heart that values Jesus more than abundance of wealth and possessions. The heart is deceitful above all things. Jeremiah 17, 9. We were born into sin and cannot love or seek after God of our own accord due to our hardened heart. Romans 3. It is the Father who draws us to himself. John 6. We need to be born again to be able to see God's kingdom, John 3. Our desires need to change away from earthly things and into eternal, everlasting, never-perishing treasure. In Colossians 3, 2, it says, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. As we look to Christ and trust in the Holy Spirit for our transformation, we will desire the things that are of his kingdom for his glory rather than ourselves on earth. We need a new heart. Next one. And there were several, and I'm only going to touch on a few of them. There's many ways you can lay up treasures in heaven. I'm not trying to come up with an exhausted list here by any means. Number two, help the poor and those in need. Like the early church that sold their possessions and distributed to those in need, Acts 2, we can look to the needs of others around us. Jesus told a story in the parable of the banquet about inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind to a feast and said, you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, Luke 14. The Lord sees what we will do for him and we will be repaid. at the resurrection of the just. Although we might not see any reward on earth for helping those in need, we know that we are advancing the heavenly kingdom and giving God the glory, which is of more worth than having abundance of treasure on earth. Number three, live a simple life. Choose to live simply and not try to attain the life that others around us might be living. The allure of making it and life keeps our eyes focused on earthly treasures and pursuits. People may strive for bigger, better, and more in any number of ways, yet chasing after success for ourselves and trying to keep up with everyone else will eventually leave us feeling empty, exhausted, and discontented. And one more I'll share with you. Seek the kingdom of God first. Pursue Jesus above all things and surrender everything to Him. Be rich toward Him in every area of life, from the money we spend, the words we say, our interactions with others, and in all that we do. For all that Christ has done for us, we should treasure Him and His kingdom purposes first. He knows all that we need, so we can seek the kingdom and His righteousness, knowing that everything we need will be added. And that's found in Matthew 6 towards the end of the chapter. Having a heavenly mindset, he will free us from the values found on earth and keep our heart and mind on Christ in eternity. So as I read that, it was a good self-examination for my life, and I just thought it was worth sharing. One more place I want to turn to in the scripture is Luke 12. And these are all familiar verses, but they kind of went along with laying up treasures in heaven. Luke 12, beginning at the 27th verse. Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spend not, and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is cast in the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not what ye shall eat, or what you shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather, seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Tell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. Where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So, and just opening the meeting as we draw our hearts and minds together, for what the brother, the Lord will share with us yet this evening. I just ask the question, where's your heart? Where's your treasure? We can go back to Revelations 21 and maybe we'll just go there real quick. One of my favorite chapters when it's talking about heaven and heavenly things. I'll just skim a few verses here. Revelations 21, verse one. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the new heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Verse four. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Verse six, and he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Verse 10, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone, most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal. This is what John saw of heaven and the treasures that are waiting there for us. Verse 18, And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And all the fountains of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. And then it lists all the stones, and then talks about the pearly gates, and it goes on. We won't go on for the sake of time. But as I thought back, or did, and self-examination of my own life, and where my treasures are being laid up, to come to the conclusion that there's not enough gold in California for me to want to stay here. There's a lot more gold in heaven waiting for us. And I am encouraged, and I want to encourage you to lay up your treasures in heaven. And I found this song. I will read this song, and then we will go to prayer. I don't know the tune. If somebody knows the tune to this song, I'd be interested in finding it. Have we laid up our treasures in heaven, the land where no moth shall consume, no beautiful links shall be riven, no frost blight the lilies' fair bloom? Have we laid up our treasures by caring for those who are lonely and sad, each gift and each happiness sharing to make others grateful and glad? Have we laid up our treasures by trusting the Father whose help is so nigh, our lives to his counsel adjusting, and serving the Master on high? Have we laid up our treasures in heaven, rich treasures of faith, hope, and love? If so, what bright stars shall be given? What blessings await us above? Wonderful treasures, heavenly pleasures, never to perish nor fade away. Wonderful treasures, heavenly pleasures. Are we laying up treasures today? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you this evening on bended knee with many reasons to be thankful. We just thank you for this opportunity to be together We thank you for this good land in which we live. Just pray that you would bless us this evening. Bless the brother that would speak to us as he opens your word. We pray that you would just help us to lay up our treasures in heaven, whatever that may be, however that is for each of us. Lord, we just pray that you would lead, guide, and direct us by thy spirit. and all the things that we think, say, and do. We pray that you would increase our faith for the days that are ahead of us. We just ask that you would help us to be mindful of the needs around us. Just pray that you would help us to be a good light, be a good witness for Jesus and the gospel. We just pray that you would be with us this evening. Forgive us and save us eternally with our prayer in Jesus' name. On earth and heaven we hallow thy name, and in high kingdom, holy on earth be thy name. O give to us daily our fortune of bread, and its fruit thy bounty. That Alma Mater, forgive our transgressions, And teach us to know, That humble compassion, When pardoned before, Defies from temptation, from evil and sin, as thine be the glory forever, amen. This comment has very little to do with this evening's worship, but I think about Carl just starting that song. The last thing I noticed as I walked out tonight is there's this probably a free magazine laying there. It said aging is cool. Everybody does. And so Carl, the writing style, Everybody ages too, no matter your age. That really has nothing to do with the subject tonight. We plan on singing 150 in a little while. And while we're thinking of that, you could turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two. Several messages ago, we started through the book of Ephesians and we got We went through chapter one and part of chapter two, then we got sidetracked for a couple of messages. And in reality, no more messages than I come up with that covered quite a span of time. I don't like to admit that, but it did. I appreciated the opening exercises. especially the quote there in Luke, fear not little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom. That pleasure, the God of heaven, when it says give you the kingdom, remember that Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is within you. That pleasure is the God of heaven. Can you imagine that? and it's in the Bible, the scripture. So we do take that serious, that it is the Father's good pleasure. Let's just sing that hymn first, 150. Go ahead and start that, we all know that hymn. Of all others, well-preserved, well-meaning, well-dressed. It is love, becoming brother, trusting, free, and loving. When you're home, I pray you stay home. The world out there is small. But in me, I'm counting you out. Where you're from, it means a lot. Oh, Lord, raise our hearts to the southland. Lift us, Lord, and make us love. We've become blind, for death is our friend. What a man we have become. Before we get into this portion of the second chapter of Ephesians, I'll just do a little bit of review. If you would look at Ephesians 1, and I have the date that that was probably potentially written, which was AD 64. And 32 years later, if you want to look at Revelations, 2 versus the 1 through 7, I believe it is, that was AD 96. I think that's about 32 years. 32 years ago. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up, I want you to think about where you might have been 32 years ago. And some of you, I suppose, I don't see too many here that would be not know 32 years ago in their life, but some of you, 32 years ago, you weren't part of God's kingdom. You didn't have the kingdom of God within you. Some of you could remember, and you've been in the kingdom way longer than that. 32 years ago, that'd been 1993 or so, I was only 43 years old. Now, if we want to go 32 years in the future, that would make me 106. I don't expect to be here. The reason I'm bringing this up is in a short 32 years, what happened to the church? What happened? If you want to go to Revelations and look, you will see that they were actually doing all the right thing. They were addressing evil. They were actually taking care of it. They were actually recognizing the devil's work in the church. You know what was wrong? It says right there, you've left your first love. We can do everything right, whether it's in, and I appreciate being invited here and I'm part of your church family tonight, but we as a church family could do everything right as far as what it looks like. And we could take care of every little problem that comes. The problem is, and even in your private life, you can look pretty good. You look good tonight. But if you left the first love, what's the rest of it amount to? I think it's interesting that a Christian brother, not of our fellowship today, told me this. And I told him, I look at eyes, too. I like eyes that has life in them. That's what I see. But he told me, he said, my wife says your eyes are kind. Your eyes are, too. You know where that comes from? First love. You look at eyes. You go to town next week. You look at some of those eyes. Some of them, you can tell that they're kind eyes. I think they come from a Christian renewed heart, some of them are not. So that's just a little beginning here as we look at this chapter. I could do more review, I don't think I will. We're interested in the chapter two, and we're going to read from verse 11 to the end of the chapter. We had a message on chapter one and the first part of chapter two, and this is where we'll begin. Chapter two, second, Ephesians chapter two, verse 11. It says, wherefore, remember that ye, being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision, by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands. And really, I think it should start right here, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometime far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall partitioned between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself a 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 far off and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with 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 groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." So as we looked at that, and I just titled this, as I looked at that portion of scripture, I just titled this, From Strangers to Holy Temples. And you'll find out that that's right here, that's exactly what this takes you from, from strangers complete strangers to the commonwealth of God, to the commonwealth of Israel, the holy temples of the Lord. That's what we are, and that's where we'll start. I think it's interesting that the definition of strangers in this is just simply without knowledge, a foreigner, an outsider. You look at verse 12 here. It said that at the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. That's where the Gentile people were. Actually, I suppose that even in God's sight, because the Jewish people were His chosen, I think the real purpose was just simply that the Jewish people would live a life that was dedicated to God that the Gentile people would come and want to be part of that. Something happened. And it didn't happen because of God. It happened because of the Jewish people. I remember reading an account that especially one lady wanted to be part of the Jewish people. She said, bring me close. She told the rabbi, bring me close. And that just simply means, accept me to be part of you. I want to be close to God. I want what I see in you. He said, no. You see what happened? That's not Jesus. That's not God's purpose. God's purpose is just simply, when there's a heart yearning to say, bring me clothes, he expects us to do that in his ability, in his way, using your personality, your gift. So I think there's a cry out in the world today, I know there is, that some would look and say, bring me clothes. I hope we don't say no. There's a lot of different ways to say no. You can say no with a very definite no. Or you can simply ignore it rather than turn it around. It's the same. It's the same no either way. Well, as we look at this, I see that in this there is barriers. And when I think of barriers, I have some listed here. And we're probably going to mentioned them more than once, but back in this chapter in Ephesians and actually in this group of verses, I find out that there's barriers, there's social barriers, and that is between master and slave. And as we look at these, I want you to realize that those same barriers probably are present today, whether they're in our life or whether they're in somebody you're associated with. Master and slave. There's a resentment, I think, in the slave to the master, and in the master, they were just simply, many times, just said, that's just property, not even human. So there's master and slave barrier. There's a financial, there was a financial barrier there between the rich and the poor. And again, it's close to the bastion slaves because the poor people would have probably, in some cases, been envious of the rich. And the rich would have been kind of condescending, saying, I'm so much better than you. I don't have to associate with you. In fact, you know, we're in different circles. And I go to this party over here, and you go over here and meet around this well at the city gate or someplace like that. We don't mix. So that was a barrier. That was social. financial, there's a family barriers we think about. And I think back to then, if we think about that, I suppose that if you look at that, there was probably believers and non-believers. I think about that. I wonder how that worked. What about some of these? What about Timothy? And what about some of his mother and grandmother? What about his dad? I mean, what's going on there? You think there's barriers? I think there is. What about now? And we've experienced some of those. I look around here and I think about some of our experiences in Old German Baptist Brethren Church. There have been barriers. Some of you here, you've obviously left the fellowship or you're not attending there at least sometimes. There's barriers in the family because of that. I'll just throw a little A little advice in here, and I've gave this before. I'm aware that at times we've been abused and hurt. But where we have fellowship, some of our brothers and sisters are where we have fellowship, and maybe it's happening right now. I don't know. I hope not. But my advice and my encouragement is simply Don't keep that. One way to get rid of that is when you go to prayer to God, if it's a church district, if it's a church family, if it's an individual, name that out audibly to God and tell God, I forgive. So and so forth. God will take care of that. But do it. I remember giving that encouragement, and a sister came up to me afterwards and said, I don't have any kids. I don't think she'd come up and say that. Anyway, that's just to decide the point of the barriers in family that happened. First Corinthians here, 7, 14. And this has to do with barriers and family and divisions there. It says, 1 Corinthians 7, 14, where the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife. Wow. And the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Sanctified just means set apart, in this case, set apart for God. There's something special here that I think only God could Maybe only God understands. I don't exactly understand this, except you, if there's an unbelieving part of your family, husband or wife, wherever that's at, whatever it is, give it to the Lord, because he or she is sanctified. It says right there, else where your children are then clean, but now they are holy. You want to bring up children to the Lord, His kingdom? Right there is the first step if there's barriers in your family. Another one is, I think it's right here in these chapters or these verses, the Greeks and the barbarians. I always put them two together, but it's not. The Greeks thought they were way up here. Everybody else was barbarian. They were unbelievers, they were rough, they were whatever. So there was a division there. They didn't associate with each other. And you realize, and we'll get to that, we better keep going here. But in that, there was also the barriers, obviously, between the Jews and the Gentiles. Obviously, that was obvious right here. And I'm interested because I just added a little extra here after I looked through these, and I just wrote it in. We were over in Holmes County once, We've been there more than once, of course. It was in the Little Town of Charm, and the lady down there in the material store was kind of concerned because there was a place for sale, and all the other places in the Little Town of Charm was owned by Amish, and she was afraid the English would buy it. So there's barriers. I wonder if we don't have them in even our lives. I mean, sometimes I could go out there, and I thought about it today. I remember one time being in an antique store one rainy day. Here comes a tattooed couple in, I mean, heavily tattooed. Of course, you know what goes through your mind. Here come an Amish couple, and I had been aware that sometimes there's some immorality and whatever, even some omniscience, whatever. You know what the problem was? I was way up here above all that. I don't tattoo. It took me till the next day at church on a Sunday, so we had a good message on being Judge Penhall to realize that's exactly what I was doing. You know what's inside of both, all four of those, both couples? Heart. I think that you're exactly that. We can talk more on that, we won't. Romans, chapter one. Verses 14 and 15. It says, I am a debtor. This is Paul, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians. There he's got two groups, both to the wise and to the unwise. There's two more. I don't know where you put yourself, but I put myself on that day as one that was wise. I found out I was in the other group. So, as much as envy is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. That means also to the Gentile. That means also to the wise or the unwise. Paul said, I am unashamed to preach to all this group of people. That's exactly what this rest of this or this portion of scripture is about. Another verse that I have written down, Colossians chapter three, verse 11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision, no uncircumcision, two different groups of people, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. And there's another verse, and this is Old Testament verse Isaiah 57 verse 19. And this was God's purpose even under the old law in the Old Testament. Isaiah writes this, I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off, And that's to the unbeliever, the non-Jewish person, even the little old lady that says, bring me near. He said, I, the fruit of the lips, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, said the Lord, I will heal him. That means both. I think God's purpose, and I know it was, it's just simply in the Old Testament too. His purpose, his goal was to heal both. His purpose was all would come close to him. So that's the barrier. So let's look at verse 13. It says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometime far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And that's, I just wrote down here, the power of God is the destruction of the past. You know why I wrote that? Those four points that I just went through, whether it was the barrier of social, financial, family, the Greeks, barbarians, The power of God destructed. There was destruction in every one of them. They're gone. That's what this is for. And verse 14, for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall partition. I think as we look at that, we think about there's two people groups, two people groups, no matter where they are, but they're one in Jesus. And that's just simply the grace of God. An illustration of that, Philippians 2 verse 25, and I'm not turning there, but I just want to make this point because I looked that up, is Ephraphoditus. And Paul was recommending him. He says, I don't even know what he said, but he said, receive him because this man has been taking care of me while I think it was while Paul was in prison. You know why I'm making a point of that? You know where that name comes from? It comes from the goddess of love, pagan god, about as immoral as you could get. That's where that name comes from. You see what happened? That was the group of people, that was from a pagan, idolatrous place that you wouldn't even want to read about or see or walk close to. I think he was part of that at one time. And yet Paul said, receive him. He's been taking care of me. You see what Jesus Christ makes? He makes us one no matter where we were, no matter who it is. That's what he does. That's what his purpose is. That's why he came. And we sometimes, in even our church families just like this, sometimes we get separated for some reason, or not united. Unity is a miracle. Remember that, unity is a miracle. Okay. 1 John 3, 14 and 16. And this is just simply has to do with loving our brother, no matter what kind of position, where they come from, or our sister, no matter what. First John 3, 14 through 16, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brother. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. He that hath no known murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brother. And the reason I read that is just simply sometimes when I think that I am way up here and some of those people I meet are someplace down here. The reason that that applies to me is I ought to lay down my life. What do you think Jesus died for? It was for people like I thought I was so much better. You know where you were? You know where you would be without Jesus Christ? No, you don't. And it would probably be way worse than what you think you would. We don't know that. But I just had that feeling in my heart that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and a church family that cared, I would be out there someplace way different than here. So let's move on. Verses 13 and verse 10. Again, 13 we know about. Verse 10 says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. And I wrote down this, destruction of the past is in Christ alone. I like that word alone. Our salvation is in Christ alone. Anything added to that is salvation in Christ alone. Salvation plus. It's not that. The blood of Jesus Christ. So, you don't need to belabor that. It's interesting that As we look at verse 13, I just wrote down that there is liberation there. And the liberation is just simply that we don't have to keep the law. He fulfilled that. We don't even have to do good works for our salvation. That doesn't work either, although we are encouraged to that. Verses 8 and 9 right here. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves, a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them. I guess my point is just simply that we're his. And we are created for him, for his use, He's gifted you with spiritual gifts to use for his kingdom, edifying the body of Christ. I don't know if you know what your gift is or not, and I don't know if we need to know, and I think this is just a little rabbit trail, but I think God gifts us with spiritual gifts for special occasions, plus I think each one of you have special spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. A spiritual gift is not just a normal fleshly gift. It's something from God. So use that for the good works. And also, verse 13, again, it says, we are made nigh. That means we are brought close. It says right there, We're made nigh by the blood of Christ. We're brought close. And I looked at that. I thought there was about three or four things that we see when we're brought close to Christ. First, we see him as he is. And as we have fellowship with him, as we have a connection, we see him as he is. And I don't know how you see Christ Jesus. And I'm not gonna even try to explain how I see it. And there's some things that you cannot explain, but you know it. You know. I've asked, I've made this question or asked this question before with you little children. If Jesus walked in the door, would the children know him? And I get, the heart says, yes. How would they? There are some things you can't explain. And But we shall see him as he is first. We're made nigh, we're brought close. And the first is, and the second is, as you see him, you'll see his holiness. But I think with that, we'll also see ourself as we are. What do you see? What do you see in yourself? I've already said that. Without the Lord Jesus Christ in my life, my heart, I'd be out there someplace. We see our sin. If we see His holiness, we see our sin. Another thing that we see is simply that we understand and see His grace. By grace are you saved through faith. You shed blood of Jesus Christ, that's grace. He died for us. So we see that His grace And another thing that I wrote down here real quick was we're liberated from all the barriers and separation. We don't have to have this. We create them in our own mind and our heart. Part of that creation of barriers and separation is simply pride and unforgiveness in our mind and our heart. And I think we know all this, but sometimes I just need somebody to kind of come up to me and pat me on the shoulder or maybe grab me and say, You need to practice what you preach. And I think what I'm saying to you is you need to practice what you believe. You already know this. We all know this. And another thing is we're one or unified in Him, Him alone in Christ Jesus. It's Him and Him alone. That's where our unity is. Just lately, I brought it to somebody's attention. We could either have the unity of the Spirit Or sometimes we have the spirit of unity and think that's the unity of the spirit. It could be. But the spirit of unity could just simply all of us agreeing that we're going to walk out of here right now because you don't like what I'm saying. That's the spirit of unity. Not right, is it? But the unity of the spirit has come from the spirit of God, from the word of God, and it touches our hearts and our lives. That's the unity of the spirit. The unity of the spirit, unity, I look around here, and I see different people. I see different eyes, different expressions. Isn't it a miracle that we're unified? Isn't it a miracle? Well, what are we unified around? It's not what we agree on through the week, the budge. It's not what we were. It's not even sometimes it comes to me. But we are unified that this is the word of God, We are unified that we have the Spirit of God in our life. We're unified in the blood of Jesus Christ and the resurrection power in our life. And from that, and the very fact, and we need to have this understanding that we are his. It's a safe place. We're secure in him. And that's where we live. That's our unity together. It's a miracle. As I look at verse 13 again, I just look at that and I say, but now in Christ Jesus, and we're made nigh by the blood of Christ. Well, what was the expense? It was a cost. It was the blood of Christ. We're made nigh by the blood of Christ. There's a hymn in our hymn book, and we're going to sing it. Just a few over from 155. You look down here at the third stanza. For as the Savior knew, the price of pardon was his blood. His pity never withdrew. Let's sing that hymn, 155. Thou condescending and outcrying, Lord God, the eternal Son, Are there three reasons, tell me, why? Why is it you are in there? When ghosts destroy our visions, grow old, He gave his soul up to the throne, without remorse, without remorse. This was the passion of our God, for us the Savior knew. The Christ, the Father, and was his love, His Spirit, he ever flew. The blood of Jesus Christ. I have a list of scriptures. I'm going to go to one of the revelations, chapter one, verses five and six. It says, and from Jesus Christ, who is a faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince and of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God his father and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. and other scriptures. First Peter 1, 18 and 19, Hebrews 10, 10 to 14, Hebrews 9, 11 to 14. There's a whole list of them. And we'll finish up this small section here. It's just this statement, and I wrote it down. For saved by grace, the shed blood of Jesus Christ only. And that's, again, that's through faith. I want to impress this on our mind tonight. I'm going to say this several times. The grace and miracles of unity and oneness in Jesus Christ. The grace and miracle of unity and oneness in Jesus Christ. That's the grace and miracle of oneness. And it's only in Jesus Christ. If you ever wonder and if you ever experience a time, even here at Sugar Grove, where you don't seem unified, you don't seem a one. Look at Jesus Christ in your life, where's he at? And that's where you gotta go. And I'm not saying you're there, I don't even know if you've been there or you're gonna be there, probably gonna be there. Most of us are at some point, whether it's a church family or whether it's our family. But anyway, let's look at verses 14 through 18 right now, and it's mostly about peace. And just a little recap, remember that we were strangers all of that and we are going to have peace and then we're going to end up at the Holy Temple. Verse 14 says for he is our peace. Isaiah 9 verse 6 calls him Jesus Christ in that the Prince of Peace. As I thought of that I thought Jesus Christ he is the ground floor of peace. I thought a little about that and I thought about what about a new business that starts Remember that you start a business from scratch, from nothing, and you build that up and you expand and you go out and you have other business over this world. You know what the ground of that was? Original businessman started the business. Then I thought about pyramid. You know what a pyramid is? When we think about, I looked up pyramid schemes. very legal, but you've been part of this pyramid where they were, I don't know, I was thinking about Avon, I don't know whether it was ever like that or not, but anyway, you're on the ground floor of that, and you get other dealers above you, might be McNash, I don't know that company's still going or not, and you get other people above you to sell your product, you get a cut of all that. You know where the ground floor of that was? First one that started. He gets all the profit. You know what the ground for peace is? His passion. He gets all the profit. He gets all the glory. He gets all. Everything we do for peace, we might think that we did it ourself. And if you submit to Jesus Christ, you had a lot to do with it. But Jesus Christ, he's our peace. That's what it says here. For he is our peace. And it says, who hath broken down the metal wall of partition. You know what that was? In fact, if you look at some history a little bit, they found a part of some signage that was there in the middle wall partition. Here's what the history says that would have said, and I think it's interesting. It says it's supposedly said no foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. You see how serious they thought that was for a Gentile barbarian Greek to come into the sanctuary where the Jewish people was worshipped. Now it also says, I thought it was interesting, that there was only a four-foot wall between there. And I thought, why wouldn't it want a big one? You know what I think? This is just opinion. I think that some of the Jewish people probably thought, I want these Gentiles over there to look over here and see what they're missing. And I wonder if some of them Gentiles didn't look over there across that wall and think, I'm not missing much. We want to be like this. I mean, that's just the way people's mind works. I don't know why they didn't put a wall that's 10 foot high. They really didn't want any. And anyway, that's the middle wall petition. And I think as we think about the middle wall petition, I could have that in my heart, too. And it's more than four foot high. It can go all the way through. I've used this comparison before, but we sometimes have a little weakness in our hearts. And Jesus comes in and says, I'd like to get in that closet. Now, you don't want to go there. I had to open it up. You know what? He already knows what's there. The best thing to do is open it up and just clean it out. Brother Mike met us in Maple Grove this morning, and he said, I don't think he said the good thing about it, but he said one thing about when you find yourself in sin, you get to hug God again. I thought that's pretty special. If we find yourself because of something you don't want anybody to know, then Jesus, lean it out and hug God again. He'll hug you back. Well, Verse 16, and that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And that's verse 16. I want to look at reconcile just a little bit. And I just wrote down here, that's a state of harmony that's harmonized together. I thought about harmonizing together. Now some of you that know me are probably going to smile at this, but I thought about singing. You know what, and I looked that up, an example is singing different notes simultaneously with a melody creating a richer, more complex sound. Interesting, because good singing I could understand, I could hear, but you harmonize together with singing. That's what this means. Reconcile. You harmonize together. God did that for us. We harmonize with God. It's special. It's a sweet smelling savor to him. It's what he wants. It's what we want. It's harmonizing. I also thought about just the fact, I think it's in Psalms, and I forget what chapter it is there. I wrote it down. Yeah. Psalms 122. It says that they were compacted together. That's in Jerusalem. And I picture them compacted together. I picture little houses, probably rooms. Here's one, here's one, a common wall here between them, and here's one. I thought about it, if my mansion in heaven's like that, if you're next to me, you're gonna hear me sing eternally. And it'll be better than it is here, because it's like a new song. So think about heaven, and think about the new song. Okay, let's move on here. Harmonizing, richer sound. It's more beautiful and complimentary to each other's. That's what harmonizing does. That's what reconciled to God does. We're reconciled together with him. Verse 16, it says right here, he slain the enmity. He killed or abolished the enmity. That's called, in my book, in my idea, that's redemption. We have some scriptures for that, and I think we need to hurry. I'll give you one, Galatians 4, verse 4 and 5. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. One more, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's redemption. That's what we want. That's what he did for us. He paid the penalty. He gave himself. We move on, verse 18. For through him we have access by one spirit unto the Father. And that access is just simply being brought to God. And what I thought about there, and I thought I had a verse for that. I don't see that I do. I guess it don't matter, but access to God is what that means. And to me, that just simply means that now we have permission. We have the permission to approach God through the Lord Jesus Christ. You realize, and I know you do, that under the old covenant, they had to approach God through a priest. And I thought, what a drag that would be. But we approach God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have that permission. That's what access means. We have permission to do that now. And God himself gave us that permission through the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think we realize, and I know I don't, what a blessing that is to have access directly to the throne of God. We're getting to the end of this, and we're getting to the place where It's the Holy Spirit. It's a holy place within you. What did I call it to start with? A holy temple. That's where this is going to end, in a holy temple. And that's you and me. Again, I just want to make this clear. The grace and miracle of unity and oneness with Jesus Christ is the grace and miracle of unity. And it's only through Jesus Christ. Verse 19, it says, Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. So as I look at that, I thought about that. You're the household of God, you're God's family, you're the household of faith. And there are some scriptures we could go to. But The first thing it says here, fellow citizens with the saints. Now, I just want to point that out. It says you're fellow citizens. We're not citizens of this country in particular. We're ambassadors of Christ. Our citizenship's in heaven. That's what it's saying right here. That's the reason That's one of the reasons, and we could go to other scriptures, but that's one of the reasons that we consider ourselves as followers of Jesus Christ to be a separate kingdom. We're not of the kingdom of this world. We're in a separate kingdom. Realize that, preach that, understand that, and live like that. Don't be, be like Paul was. He said, I'm not ashamed to preach the gospel. We, and I don't say this to be particularly funny, but I've met a couple times with some older brethren there in Nicaragua at a restaurant. It's the second Wednesday of every month. One of our brothers said, it's where the old people used to eat. And I don't know if I like that or not, but we just meet. And nope, nope, really? or more of anything to talk about maybe what's bothering somebody or maybe what a challenge is. But one of the brothers that started it got there a little early the other day. Somebody was sitting over here at a table by the shelf, and he went over and talked to him. The guy was a veteran. He said, all you, all you men under me, are you veterans? He said, no, none of them, sir. Non-existent. Never heard of that. I thought, a separate kingdom business, that's kind of interesting. And another man sat down there, and this guy said, he said, they're non-resistants. He said, I hate non-resistants. Well, that's interesting, a separate kingdom. And so, Bobby said, we talked a little bit, and I got up because everybody was coming. He said, well, I love you anyway. I thought, what a good response. But we're a separate kingdom. Don't be ashamed. I mean, I was so impressed. No, we're not better. And then you tell them why. And don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Well, let's move on. I don't even know where we were. The household of God. We're fellow citizens, but we're the household of God. We're even more than fellow citizens. We're God's family. And I just wrote down in verse 20 here, it says, we're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And I just wrote down here, are you part of the building? I want to emphasize that Jesus Christ is a cornerstone. He's a foundation stone. He's all the building, all in the capstone. He's everything about it. But are you part of that? And do you make any contributions to that building? And I suppose I'm talking about maybe even your church family or your family at home, however, or are you just a taker? And I know what they are. I've been there myself in the past. I just sympathize. I don't really give. And as you mature in Christ Jesus, you want to be more than just a taker. You want to be a giver. You want to give everything you can. You have something that God wants to do for his kingdom, for the edification of the body of Christ. You have something. So what do you have for God to use? How do you offer yourself? Do you offer yourself? And I'll just give you a little question here. You offer yourself to God. Did God use you? Give me more management. Try that with me. And you're going to get more. But it's probably going to be way different than what you maybe even wanted. But you're going to get more. He'll do that for you. And do you. It's going to be way out of your comfort zone, but he's going to give you the grace to do it. You know what? You're going to be far happier because you're doing God's will in God's way. He's empowering you. And you're going to realize you get to do the supernatural Holy Spirit gift that only God can give. What an experience that he offers us. Don't be ashamed. for the gospel of Christ. Well, as we get toward the end of this, I just wrote down here, there's three powerful points from Paul here. Verse 19, it says, you are no more. To me, that means that you have salvation. That's what he's saying. You're no more of anything back there. The barriers are gone. Now you have salvation. Verse 20, It says, and are, that means that you have security in Jesus Christ. You have salvation, you have security, and also that you will find out in that that Jesus Christ is the foundation, the structure, he's the cornerstone, he's everything about it. And number three is verse 21, you have success. And I like that because you are assured of success. It says here, you're fitly framed together and you grow. That's success. But I think these one builds upon another. Salvation, realize the security you have and realize that he is going to give you success. It's not you. It's him working in you. That is, you're fitly framed together and you're going to grow. into a holy nation. You're going to be a peculiar people. You're going to be separate. You are separate. Well, verse 22, again, you're building together. We have redemption, rehabilitation, we have a residence, we're a habitation of God, we're the holy temple. I'm not going to go any further. We have oneness in the grace and miracle of the unity and oneness in Jesus Christ. I would like, and we know, we could go back to John's gospel and read about the promise of the Holy Spirit. That's the holiness that you have, the holy temple. You're his holy temple now. He don't dwell in that temple made with hands. He dwells in your heart. That's the unity. That's the only reason I think that we have unity is because he dwells in our heart, the Holy Temple. We started off as strangers in the commonwealth of Israel. We ended up where the Holy Temple of God. I just like to, and I wrote this down, just make a call. the Holy Spirit. And I don't know what the call I would like to make. It's just simply, whatever has touched you tonight in your heart, however God's touched you, don't just go home tomorrow morning and say, pretty good message. Go on through your week, it's like a good life. This is the thing. I do that. And I think you probably do too. But the call of the Holy Spirit is just simply, let the power of the Spirit of God, and let it take down the barriers in your life. Let the power of the Spirit of God raise up Jesus Christ. Open the closet door up and invite him in. Make your whole heart a living room that he is welcomed in. And Jesus Christ, when the devil comes calling, Don't even go to the door. Let Jesus get the door. You've had experience. I haven't had enough. Bless you, brothers and sisters. You were broke, nosy, snoozy. We're family, aren't we? Sons and daughters of God, I'd just like to make a comment. Your intention of being adopted I don't know what adopted children look like, but I think adopted children are more special. Adoption makes us sons and daughters. But adoption in the natural family is just something that you are special enough to me that I want you to be mine. That's what it does. It's very special. That's what God did through Jesus Christ. We're just adopted. His people, his chosen people, they were chosen, but were adopted into his family. Brothers and sisters and siblings. The unity of the spirit and the bond of peace is what this is about. So if Jesus walked in tonight, would the children here know him? Would they recognize him? Would they know it's him? While you think on that question, I want to go back, I don't know, 40 years plus, 45 years ago, in this meeting house one Sunday. Back when the table was over there and the doors here, the benches were turned this direction and we were all looking to the south, a man named Dave Wilson, if I have his name right, correct me if it's not, lived in a trailer down here at the end of the road, back from the corner, in a trailer there. I forget what model car he drove, it was back in the 70s, and it was a nice car in the day, or one that caught young boys' attention. And if his name was Dave, I think it was Dave Wilson, Dave had hair that was down below his shoulder, and he had a beard, and he had a mustache, and he looked like the pictures of Jesus. Everybody knew it. Everybody in the community, if you remember him, you'll remember that he looked like Jesus. One Sunday, in this meeting house, after services took up, I don't know how long church had been going, but he walked through those doors right over there. And he came in and he sat down, and called attention. There was visitors here then. They didn't know Dave Wilson. We knew him. We drove past his house and saw him in the yard, but there were visitors here that didn't know him. And I remember people glance and double take and turn around. And I wonder what Dave Wilson thought of the German Baptist. Probably the first time he ever stepped foot in this meeting house, everybody turned to stare. And they probably, I don't know if he knew why or not, But what the children were trying to figure out, is that Jesus? I'm going to tell you that I think if Jesus walked into the meeting house tonight, the children and all of us would recognize and know. You know why? Because of the kindness in his eyes. Remember how Brother Dean started the night about looking into the eyes of people? I think it would be because of the kindness in his eyes. Now I've got another question tomorrow. wherever you end up at work, or in the marketplace, or in the schoolhouse. The school's out now, so probably won't be in school. But wherever you end up tomorrow, I've got a question. When you walk into the room, will the people there double take? Will the people there say, I think he's been with Jesus, he or she? It's been with Jesus. You know, that was the result of those who had been under the teaching of Jesus. They knew that they had been with Jesus. And it was because of the kindness in their eyes. Got another thought from tonight that struck me, and it's this. Unity is a miracle. Unity is a miracle. Is it? I say yes. You know why people like us have trouble finding unity? We're looking in the wrong place. We're looking at each other. We may be looking in the mirror, but the reason we have trouble finding unity is because we're looking in the wrong place. And I'd like to, I'm sorry, Ian, I'm going to jump ahead of your study into Ephesians four. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter four and look quickly at verse three. Actually, we better back up because in order to get to the, reality of the power of this, looking in the right place for unity, we need to back up to verse one. Therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation, the calling, this calling in Christ Jesus, wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, Forbearing one another in love. There's the prerequisites to unity, and here's where it's found. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. The spirit of God is the source of all true unity. And the reason men have trouble finding it is we look at ourselves in each other, compare ourselves, and we work together trying to come to unity. And we can't find it because we're looking in the wrong direction. But tonight, the scripture says, when we look to the spirit of God and we are endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, in other words, we're endeavoring to keep a hold of him. And when we have a hold of Him and we're looking into His face and those compassionate, kind eyes of Jesus and the Spirit of God begin to change us, then suddenly we are instruments of His peace. I'd like to sing 253. And as we sing this, remember that this song is not actually written to try to get us all on the same page so that we can have unity, but rather it's going to actually come down to a very personal need for me to have unity so that we can have unity. And let's sing this together. Love and union, Zion's basis. Sweet is summer's morning air. No affliction, time, nor places can the blessing from us dare. Union feasts our souls with pleasure and increases love and zeal. Union is our heavenly treasure and its blessedness we feel. The end of earth's mourning air, No affliction, time, or places, Cannot lessen from us care. Union, peace, love, souls with pleasure, and every self, love and dear union is our heavenly treasure. And this lesson as we hear All who join in through devotion All who study through the rest Fill this union like an ocean, roll with the energy of breath. Fading and sinking, burn all prison. ♪ To our land ♪ ♪ Though the world ♪ ♪ Round us gazes ♪ ♪ We do believe ♪ ♪ Heavenly home ♪ ♪ Oh, how we love thee ♪ and how lovely for the souls where you now reign. Such are good and kind and holy as these souls do. You can make this day a dream of mine ever You can hold me all day long You can hear me talk I want you to notice that last verse and how personal it is. Oh, how peaceful and how lovely are the souls where union reigns. Such are good and kind and holy, happy souls who union gain. Tis the offspring of kind heaven, pure and lovely, all divine. Union, gentle, mild and even. Union, I will make thee mine. I just want to say that when our souls are in union with God, there won't be any problem with the communion of the body of Christ. So let's all go home and take personal responsibility for establishing, Christ establishing His unity in us so that we can have it together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow down before you this evening With Thanksgiving in our hearts, knowing that you have taken down the middle wall of partition between us, we know that you have, from the foundation of the world, had a desire to have union and communion with every child of yours. Father, thank you for making a way for that to be possible. It's by the cross of Jesus. It's by the blood of his cross. It's by the sacrifice that he made on our behalf so that we could live his life. Lord, thank you. For the righteousness of Christ upon us. Lord, help us to look full in your face. To have union with you. So that communion with you would relate to communion together. Father, thank you for this message tonight. May we go home with a with a glad heart, recognizing that you have invited us to be sons and daughters of yours, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ himself. What a gift. What a privilege. Lord, draw us into that sweet communion. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us our daily bread. Give us our daily bread. Give us our daily bread. Give us our daily bread.