Transcript for:
Ephesians 2:11,22 -In Christ- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-01-25

Ephesians two eleven through 22. Wherefore remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. That at that time, you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, he who were sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of 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 who were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through him, we both have access by one spirit under the father. Now therefore, 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 being the cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the spirit. Father, we thank you for your holy word. And Lord, we're here to study. We're here to be students of your word, to study to show ourselves approved under God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Lord, we thank you that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man, the woman of God be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Lord, feed us this morning. We're your sheep, Lord. Feed us. Fill us to overflowing with your love. Fill us to overflowing, instruct and teach us in the way we should go. Equip us to go and make disciples. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? Before Christ, we were number one, destitute. Notice verse 11. There's five areas of loss that we experienced before we were in Christ. Paul is going to show that this mystery that was once hid now revealed is the church age, a new dispensation where from the Abrahamic covenant, where God gave the sign of circumcision unto Abraham, he was he was separating a people, and that sign, that outward sign was to epitomize a circumcised heart, a relationship with God. Now the Jew, to be a Jew naturally, you could have the natural sign, but you may not be prolific, you may not be fruitful in the sense of of spiritual, posterity. God told Abraham that in your seat, nations of the earth would be blessed. So his intention was to cause the Jews, this Jewish people, to bring forth the Messiah, and the Messiah would be the savior of the whole world. But there was a point in time of of this developing to the eventuality that Jesus would be born as the babe of Bethlehem, and, and that he would be officially presented to the nation of Israel as their messiah, representing his father, and that he would be officially rejected by the nation, which Daniel prophesied in Daniel nine twenty five through 27 that he Messiah would be cut off after four hundred and eighty three years, from the time they're going to forth to rebuild to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of Messiah, the prince would be 483. And to that very day, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was he said to the nation of Israel, if you'd known in this thy day, this very day of your visitation, but like I'm begging people for their eyes to be open, tell me you can see, they couldn't see. And so they cried out, crucify him. They went from Hosanna, Hosanna, save now, to crucify him. Let his blood be upon us and upon our children. And Jesus wept over the city, how often I would have gathered you as a mother hen does gather your brood, the brood under his wings, but you would not. So your city is left here desolate. Jesus prophesying that one day in seventy AD, Titus, general Titus, the Romans, surround the city, put a siege upon the city, not one stone would remain upon another, upon the temple. Fire would break out in the temple, and, the only lineage, the only records would be Matthew one and Luke three of the lineage of Jesus as the Messiah. And so the Jews were very proud in being Jews, but they didn't understand, the necessity of knowing their Messiah, that he wouldn't come as a conquering king in his first advent, but that he would come as a suffering servant, that he'd come to the cross. And the nation of Israel was to be a light in Isaiah, a light unto the Gentiles, that the Gentiles would be drawn. Just as the wise men came all the way from Babylon, and they're looking for the king of the Jews, just as the Ethiopian eunuch at Pentecost came looking for looking for God, and he went away empty. And then Philip say the evangelist is able, you know, to minister unto him, and he's reading a scroll of Isaiah 53, and he preaches Christ unto him. And so too, as Philip went to the Samaritans, and then the apostle Paul is going all the way to Damascus to incarcerate Christians. And as persecution comes against the church with the death of Stephen, the gospel's finally going out reaching the Gentiles, whereas it started out exclusively Jewish. And so how do you how do you reconcile the nation of Israel and this Abrahamic covenant with the church, with Gentiles? Where do Gentiles fit in? So Paul is pointing at a whole new term here. The term is in Christ. If you're in Christ Jesus, you can be a Jew or a Gentile, whatever, but you're a part of the church. The church was hidden. The church wasn't mentioned as far as people could see in the Old Testament. In some places, in Isaiah 26 and something, there's there's some places in a vague way or in in in typology, the church, whereas in Daniel, you can see a a type of the nation of Israel with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, the time of Jacob's trouble. And you could see Daniel not mentioned, not there, as the church raptured, you know, and not on the scene. You there's other, typology there where you could see the church. But now unmistakably, after Pentecost, we have the church. We have the bride of Christ. We have the building of God, the temple, you know, and so various various phrases that describe the church. But we were destitute. We as as Gentiles, five areas of loss. He says, wherefore remember that you being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision, so you're not a part of that Abrahamic covenant. You're not circumcised by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. So he's differentiating the circumcision of the heart versus the circumcision made by hands, the outward. And so Paul's gonna explain, you know, the true Israel of God are those who believe, that believe in Jesus, and yet the nation of Israel still has a right to be there, even regathered in unbelief. Presently today, the church doesn't take the place of the nation of Israel. The gifts and the calling to God are without repentance. God's gonna fulfill his promises to the nation of Israel in the future here with the Jeremiah 31 unconditional covenant with a one third remnant purified through the tribulation period and a 144,000. So the church doesn't take the place, Martin Luther, the church doesn't take the place, Augustine, of the nation of Israel. That's a dark age false doctrine. Martin Luther got it right, justification by grace through faith alone. Great. But don't fall into the Catholic trap, the Catholic false doctrine that the church replaces Israel. No. You're mistaken. Not so. And so 05/14/1948, after Luther and Augustine and many others are in the ground, God took Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven, and one day, the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Regathered in unbelief primarily. So blindness in part has happened unto Israel. Romans eleven twenty five, they're blind in part, spiritually blind. Not all of them, but in part, the greater part, the greater, you know, percentage of Jews don't recognize Jesus as Messiah until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, the church age. So the gospel going forward. The priority is to the Jew, Romans one sixteen and seventeen, to the Jew first, but if the Jew rejects, we go to the Gentiles. Right? We get the gospel out to those in in Iran. That's why I'm so excited about the Persians today. Fastest growing church in the world. The nation of Israel, there's no revival in the nation of Israel right now. They're in unbelief. But boy, they sure are coming to Christ in in Gentile nations right now. Very, very exciting because it's that epoch, that period of time, that dispensation that we would call the church age. Verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ. We didn't know Christ. We're without Christ. Being aliens, so these five areas of loss, five things that that we didn't have that Jews had. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. If you wanted to, you could become a proselyte, they could proselytize you, and, you could become a part of, you know, as part of the commonwealth of of Israel as a proselyte, but you'll never be a true, Jew in that sense. You could live as a Jew, but never really be a Jew. You're an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. You're a stranger from the covenants of promise. You're not a student of the old testament. You don't know the old testament. You don't know the covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant. You don't know these covenants. You don't know his unconditional covenant of promise. Having no hope. You have no hope. You're gods of the Greeks and the Romans and that whole mystical age, philosophical age on Mars Hill, looking for the unknown god. You guys are without hope because your gods are dead gods. They haven't raised himself from the dead. Our god's the living god. He's the one that raised Adam, breathed life into Adam. He's the God of creation. He's the God of redemption. You're without God in the world. He says, verse 13, and don't we love these contrasts? This conjunction here, but now, as we talked about, but God, but now, a new dispensation's come. Paul's saying to the church of Ephesus, but now, in Christ Jesus, there you are. There's where you're at. You're in Christ Jesus. You're in the ark. You're in the boat. You're a Christian. John the Baptist is not in Christ Jesus. He's old testament. You and I are new testament. You and I, old and new, but you and I are in Christ Jesus. So when we think in terms of the resurrection, Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. It speaks of a sequential order, more to come, so he's the first one. But there's more to follow in the first resurrection. The bible differentiates between the first resurrection and the second resurrection. The first resurrection are for those who believe, and so Jesus is the first. And then we see in first Thessalonians four verse sixteen and seventeen, that the dead in Christ shall rise first. So all those during the church age are the next in the sequence. Jesus first, then the church age, those in Christ. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so shall I ever be with the Lord. That's the second phase of the first resurrection. Then after that, we have the at the end of the tribulation period, we have the midpoint of the tribulation period, we have the two witnesses, being raised from the dead. That's another part of the first resurrection. Next sequence, military sequence. And then the next in the sequence of that first resurrection is the Old Testament saints and the tribulation saints before the millennium. And that would complete the first resurrection, And blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection. The second resurrection is at the end of the millennium at the Great White Throne judgment in Revelation 20 verse fifteen, eleven through 15, where we have the wicked dead. The wicked dead have not been annihilated. The wicked dead have not been reincarnated. The wicked net or dead are not parting or soul sleeping. The wicked dead live eternally in hell. And they're bodily resurrected from the dead. They're not in Christ. They're not a saint. We have four types of saints, old testament saints, new testament saints, tribulation saints, and millennial saints. They're not saints. As Jaber and McGee would say, you're either a saint or you're an aint. You're gathering with Jesus or you're scattering abroad. And the only thing that gets a person into hell is one sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit rejecting Jesus Christ. So they're bodily resurrected from the dead. They stand before God at the great white throne judgment, and their judgment is based upon what they did while they're in their body, whether good or bad. And they're going to join the devil, the antichrist, the false prophet, the lake of fire, where the worm dieth not and the fire is never quenched. So I say all that to say that, aren't you glad you're in Christ? That you're in the boat? That the judgment that's all around Noah and his family, you're in the boat. You're in Christ. And the door was shut, nobody else could get in. And you are secure in Christ Jesus, and nobody's gonna ever be able to get you out of Christ Jesus, out of his hand. You are eternally secure. You may have been rejected, you may have been a stranger, you may have been ailing, you may have been with a no good pedigree at all, but now you're in Christ Jesus, but God. So we are in Christ. We are citizens of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. And the the politic, Abraham and Sarah were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Right? They described themselves as pilgrims and sojourners passing through. It's okay if you feel strange. It's okay if you feel like this earth is not your home. It's okay when you listen to people talk in the media, you just can't relate with these people anymore. So where am I at? Where in my lifetime would I've ever thought that we're gonna go all the way up to Greenland, you know? We're just gonna take it, you know? We're just what happened to sovereign nation states, you know? What happened to the Tower Of Babel where the Lord dispersed these nations and respected the sovereignty of each nation, you know? Who who do we think we are? We're just gonna invade everybody. You know? I don't like you. I'm gonna put a tariff on you. You know? And gosh, it's just insane. What country am I a part of? How does this happen? And not a peep. It's like the whole world's stunned. They're stunned. The whole world's stunned. What's going on here? What? No more United Nations? What just happened? It's bizarre. It's so bizarre. But I know that my citizenship is in heaven. I I'm I'm not getting all excited about the midterm elections because my citizenship is in heaven. I believe in a monarchy. I believe in a theocracy. I believe this whole thing's gonna fall apart. It has to fall apart because Jesus is gonna return, and except those days be short, no flesh will be saved. But for the elect's sake, for the nation of Israel, the Lord Jesus intervenes. And you and I return with him in his second coming. And he sets up his kingdom wherein righteousness dwells. I can't relate with these people. They're insane. The things that we're doing to each other. I mean, even in Minneapolis, we're Americans. What are you doing? Well, they're not all Americans. We gotta we gotta get rid of these people. We gotta send them away. We gotta weed them out. You know? Well, why don't you start with the governor? Start with the head of the snake. Start with the governor. Arrest them. This whole thing will stop if you arrest them. But you won't arrest anybody. So you're gonna play the dog and pony show getting the people against each other to bring in the right insurrection act and martial law. Suspense in the constitution. Yeah. They know they're crashing the dollar. They know we're gonna go insane when the stock market crashes and we've lost everything. Of course, they know that. They're planning it. It's happening right now. That's why they're training our military. No posse comatatus. No. We're gonna have troops on the ground, not just National Guard, but our military quelling the rebellion of the people when you finally find out you've been betrayed. And when I see that kind of stuff, I'm like, this isn't my home. How can I put my hope in this government that's betraying me? I can't. And yet, it's a government by the people for the people. We abdicated our responsibility, and we trust these people. We vote them in, and we think, alright now, wow. We got the right guy in there. Where are they going? That goal right there. Always to that goal. No matter left or right, that goal, it never stops. They're going to globalism. Why? Because God in Revelation seventeen seventeen has put it in the hearts of these men to do according to his will. God is setting the stage for the return of his son. Time is up. Time is up. Jesus is coming again. Amen. We're at the brink, and there's so many things that that signal this with Israel in the land and with the the development of, as we said this, all this tech technology that gives the antichrist the the counterfeit omniscience of hearing everybody. I shut my speakers off on my phone the other day. Somebody taught me that. Shut your speakers off. They're listening. Well, I know they're listening, but I never knew I could shut my speakers off. They're watching everything with their cameras on, satellites even, low flying satellites. I mean, the Santa Christ, he's he's they're they're equipping him to have these sort of counterfeit powers, if you will, of godhood, and and it's not my home. It's not it's not where I belong. We're recipients of the new covenant as we break the bread and partake of the cup and this new testament in his blood, you and I are recipients of that, and we have hope and we have God. But more importantly, it's not that we have God, it's that he has us. We love him because he first loved us. We saw the predestination of the father. We saw how the son has purchased us, and we saw in chapter one of Ephesians how the Holy Spirit has sealed us. The Holy Spirit has is preserving us under that eternal kingdom. He has us. In John 10, Jesus said, the thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. If you wanna know the antichrist strategy, if you want to know the strategy of the devil, it's to steal. What would he wanna steal from you? Your integrity, your innocence, your peace, your joy. He wants to steal it all, steal your marriage, your kids. He's come to steal. He wants to kill. He wants to kill anything good in your life. And Jesus said in contrast to him, but I've come that you might have life and that more abundantly. The devil wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy everything. And Jesus said, I've come that you might have life. That's a that's a quantity, eternal life. And that more abundantly, quality, a quality of life, the life of the spirit. Do you know that you and I are can have a greater sense of wealth, of being rich, simply because God gives us the capacity to be content? Godliness with contentment is great gain. And when you're content with your pension, when you're content with your family, your friends, your church, your little community, you are far richer than these billionaires who can't get no satisfaction. They can't get no. Get no. They can't get it. They try, they try, they try. How much is enough? Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. And we can be like Job, and we can have everything taken away. And the devil is betting. He's going to Vegas and he's betting. He's laying it down. He's saying, I bet you that Job's gonna curse you to your face. And God allowed the devil to get past that hedge of protection to prove to the devil that God is worthy of our love because of who he is, not what he does or doesn't do. Satan is banking on you that you will sin when God takes away your comfort zone. That you will sin, that you will what will emanate from your heart is rebellion. That you'll dishonor God. And yet, Job, he gets up praising the Lord. Naked came I in, naked I'm gonna go, the Lord giveth, the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Take his health away from him. He'll curse you to your face. The health is gone. Job maintained his integrity. And then there's a verse that really gets me. Job used to have a hedge of protection where the devil couldn't penetrate. Then we read, Job was within, but it wasn't a hedge protecting him from without. It was a hedge in the trial. He couldn't get out of the trial. Not till chapter 42, man. Chapter 42. And you know why some of you guys see? Why some of you are able to see? Because of suffering. Because everything else you've been relying upon is burned off. Now your eyes are open, and you can see Jesus. Job's wife at first, she couldn't see Jesus. You still maintain your integrity, Job, husband of mine? Why don't you curse God and die? Oh, you speak as the foolish women speak. In fact, you're not in Revelation eight verse one. You're not even there. Shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord and not evil? That's a relationship with God. There's times where Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. He knows the way that I take and when he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold. He's a man of faith. And then he has this, I know that my redeemer lives. You see what happens? When when you get in that fire, that furnace, everything's burned off. There's a depth of relationship that comes out in that faith. I know that my redeemer lives, and he's gonna stand on the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. There's no greater faith than that, is there? That's the resurrection, man. That's his savior. And then he's in chapter, you know, 38 through 42 there, and and he's been trying to justify himself the whole way. And the Lord says, where were you when? Where were you when I hung the earth on nothing? The sphere, the ball of the earth, you know. Where were you when? Can you explain explain to me this? Explain to me Leviathan. Explain to me Behemoth, you know? And it says that Job, as he's getting closer to the Lord there, says he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes. The Lord never said to Job, Job, I'm sorry. We really mistreated you. No. You're never gonna hear that. God's totally just. He's holy. He never makes a mistake. He didn't make a mistake with Job. Job was being drawn to a deeper relationship with God, a deeper relationship than you can have in a time of prosperity, a time of suffering drawing us to the man of sorrows. And Job saw himself in relationship to God as abhorrent. I'm filthy. As Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. The abundant life of the spirit. I didn't spin that like a Joel Osteen thing, did I? Your best life now. I went to suffering. What a nut job you are. Don't you give them a little bit to rest? Just rest a little bit. I want you to know the Lord. I want you to know the secret of the abundant life is the life of the spirit. Before Christ, we were destitute. Secondly, before Christ, we were despised. Verse 14. For he is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. We were hated. We were despised by the Jews. We were separated from the Jews. They saw themselves as better than us. In the temple precinct area, they had a place called the Court Of The Gentiles, and there was a four and a half foot tall wall that separated the gentile court from the temple precinct area for Jews. And they had a sign on there that says, cross this line, cross this fence by pain of death. It's your own fault that you're gonna find yourself dead if you go past this wall here. It's death. The apostle Paul in Acts chapter 21 verse 28 through 31 found out just how ravenous, how crazy these people are as he was in the area of Jerusalem getting ready to go and and to worship the Lord. He had Trophimus with him, which was a guy from Asia Minor of Ephesus. And Trophimus was a Gentile, and when some of these Asian Jews from Ephesus there in Jerusalem for the feast, when they saw the apostle Paul there, they said, oh, he's brought in Gentiles into the court. And the people went insane. A whole mob came over and grabbed the apostle Paul, beaten them, gonna kill them and all. And, and then the captain had to intervene and put him at the Antonio Fortress and all and preserve his life, but they were going nuts so be accusing Paul when it wasn't true that he brought in Trophimus there. You're hated, you're despised, you're you're separated, from them. Having abolished in his flesh, speaking of Jesus, the enmity, even the law of commandments, the law condemns us. The law is to prove us guilty. The letter of the law kills, contained in ordinances for to making himself of twain, one new man, so making peace. And so you got the Jew, you got the Gentile, the 613 precepts of the Old Testament law. All of us are guilty. Every single one of us, Jew or Gentile, you're guilty. Now he's gonna make a whole new man. New and uniqueness. He's gonna bring forth a believer, a believer in Jesus Christ, a Christian, a saint. One new man, so making peace. So the old testament patriarchs, they had to wait for the blood. They had to wait for the cross. They're waiting there, and the rich man of Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. But this new man is a man where the holy spirit's living and dwelling within us. They had the ap they had the holy spirit upon them for service, but not the indwelling. And we have we're the temple as he's gonna show here. We're the temple, the house, the building of God not made with hands where the holy spirit lives in us. And so there's a new man here, not just Jew or Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bonded free, a new man in Christ Jesus. All of us, access. And that he might reconcile both unto God. We're at war with God. God's wanting to reconcile us both, Jew and Gentile, unto God in one body, speaking of the body of Christ, speaking of the church. Isn't it amazing that Jews and Gentiles could have fellowship with one another? They had a hard time at first. The Jews had a very hard time eating with Gentiles. So ingrained in Peter's head, so ingrained in James' head, so ingrained in the Jews that would come down from Jerusalem to the area where Cornelius is or or at Antioch. And and Peter, a time there, was was eating with them, but when the heavies came down, Peter dissembled himself from the Gentiles, and Paul rebuked Peter that he was he was being, you know, hypocritical and all. Peter in Acts 10, when the when he was sleeping there at the house of Cornelius, he's he had a dream, and the Lord showed him in the dream, rise, kill and eat, Peter, and not so, Lord. And he saw these different types of Gentile foods, unkosher, not kosher foods, and rise Peter, kill and eat. No. I've never eaten anything that's unclean. And the Lord has used that as illustration of fellowship of eating, with the Gentiles and all. And, not so. Don't call that, you know, what I've what I've cleansed. And then in Acts 15, they were fighting over. Should the Gentiles that are being saved, you know, you come through chapter 10, you're seeing the Holy Spirit be poured out upon the Gentiles, and they're receiving the Holy Spirit. We can't argue with it. God's actually saving these people. Now you're in chapter 15 with the brother of James as one of the heavies, and then Peter there, and Paul, and they're they're debating over whether the Gentiles should be circumcised. Should they take this right of circumcision that was given to Abraham and pass down through all the Jews as an outward expression of an inward reality of the circumcision of the heart, the cutting away the foreskin of the heart of being of the Lord having our heart. And Peter chimes in, why put a burden upon them, the burden of keeping the law, circumcision symbolic of keeping the 613 precepts of the law? So salvation by grace through faith alone, are we saved by grace through faith alone, and then now we've got to perfect ourselves by keeping the law? Is that what that means? No. Having begun in the spirit, we're not gonna be made perfected in the flesh. It's gotta be a work of the spirit all the way through. And so Peter says, why put a burden upon them that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? So for the sake of fellowship, their council determined, well, let's try to convince the Gentiles that they not stumble the Jews by eating food sacrificed unto idols. So when we're a mixed group and we're eating, don't be boasting about how you got this meat, this rib eye, really inexpensively over that temple, you know, under Diana there. Because they take a big animal and they sacrifice it and offer it as an offering, and then the rest of it, they would sell in the public marketplace there. So Paul says when he goes to eat at your house, he's not gonna even ask you where you got it from. Not for his conscience, but for yours, because he's not under that head trip anymore. And so, so they weren't to be, involved in fornication anymore, which kinda shows you the Gentiles had a hard time shaking fornication as they first got saved. Stay away from food offered under the idols and things that that were bloody, that, were strangled and not not drained properly, the drinking of blood and all. And so there was a different cultures hitting, and how do we merge these cultures? We have Christ in common, Jesus in common, our savior's a Jew. Right? And so before there was this this huge gap there, Now there's peace. The law condemned us. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. So that you were afar off, Jesus preaching peace, reconciliation, no longer at war, Jews and Gentiles. And those that are nigh, the Jews because of the cross. And through him, through Jesus, now notice the trinity here in verse 18. For through him, Jesus, we both have access, Jew and Gentile have access by one spirit, the holy spirit, under the father. The triunity of the godhead. The access that we have because of the cross, because of Jesus. That wall of partition there was there and by punishment by death, if you cross it, now we both have access. The high priest of those that were near, the Jews, they could only go into the holy of holies once a year on the great day of atonement. At onement, the reconciliation. And so they'd have the goat that they'd slay and they take the blood, and the high priest would have these pomegranate bells around his robe, and they tie a they tie a rope to his ankle in case he didn't prepare himself properly. If they hear the bell stop wiggling, you know, and a thump, they pull that old boy out because nobody could go in there to get him because they weren't clean. They weren't prepared properly. They both would die. So they pull him out. So once a year, and he's sprinkling, and then also confessing the sins of the nation upon that other goat. It's an illustration of forgiveness that's called the scapegoat that goes out into the wilderness. That's once a year. Day of Yom Kippur, great day of atonement. Only time the nation of Israel had access through their priest, and we have a priest that's alive, that's in heaven, that ever lives to make intercession for us. And so we have access because when he was crucified in Matthew 27 verse 50, but now in Christ Jesus, our axis, Jesus when he had when he cried again with a loud voice, Matthew twenty seven fifty four, those of you that know that I'm excuse me. Matthew 27 verse 50. Some of you think I'm slowing down the way I talk. There we go. He yielded up the ghost. Verse 51. And behold, the veil of the temple. This veil in the temple is like 15 feet high and several inches thick. It's not like ripping a telephone book. Anybody ever see a guy do that? No. It is like that. Right? It's this huge, thick veil. It's not the little chintzy thing. It's just from the top to the bottom. God's the one doing it. Veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened. And many bodies of the saints which slept arose. And so what a message to people that you have access now. What a message that death has been conquered. Sin has been paid for. Hell has been vanquished. That all principalities and powers have been defeated at the cross of Calvary. And so he's taken the twain, the Gentile, the Jew. He's made them one as a part of the body of Christ, and you have access. There's now therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. There's our phrase, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. You can boldly come before a throne, not of judgment, but a throne of grace to find help, to find mercy. What is grace? Unmerited favor. What is mercy? Not getting what you deserve. You don't always want what you deserve. Oh, I want justice. If you're Job, I want justice. I want justice. Really, Job? Do you really want justice? Here's a mirror of your heart. This is what your heart looks like. Oh, I didn't think my heart was that bad. You blessed me so much. I thought it was because I was a good guy. No, Job. The heart's deceitfully wicked, desperately wicked above all things, and who can know it? I want you to see your heart. Your heart's wicked. You need a new heart. I'm gonna make you a new man. I'm gonna change you from within. In Hebrews ten nineteen, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. Jesus is the door, and we have an open door that no man can shut. You can boldly come before his throne of grace. There's no condemnation. If we confess our sin, which means to agree with the holy spirit, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. The devil wants to keep you from that access. The devil wants to keep you from Jesus. The devil will lie to you and lie to you and lie to you and condemn you and condemn you and condemn you to keep you away from Jesus. He's a liar. You need to recognize his lies. When you sin or somebody's trying to condemn you, or berate you, you need to know that that's not from God. So many of the things that people say about me or Cathy or whatever, I just have to remind myself, that's not from God. I've sat through some sessions with people where they've really really laid into me. And I wind up feeling sorry for them. I wind up praying for them because they're so what's coming out of their mouth is not from the Lord. They're generalizations. Nothing specific, just generalizations. Oh, we know what's wrong with Calvary Bremerton. Pastor Rick is evil. We need to define your terms. How am I evil? He's a little off. Find your term. How am I off? How could anyone endure this place for thirty years? Like Cathy and I have? Have we been unfaithful in our marriage like a lot of these pastors? Have we made merchandise of you and tried to get money out of you like these churches here? We beat your kids? And your daughter's been raped by youth pastors in this community? And if you had everything taken away, lost everything, and nobody stepped forward to help you? And then five people died closest to you at the same time? How's anybody weather that? Why are we still here? You think I'm getting rich doing this? You think I did this because I'm getting famous and rich and, oh, it's all for Rick? The love of Christ constrains us. We love Jesus, and we love serving him. And we don't care how many people reject or generalize or try to find fault or try to get us to run away with condemnation. Now we're talking about people in the church. People that were we once broke bread with trying to destroy us. What how is that? Jew, Gentile, he's saying, now you're one. There shouldn't be that middle wall of partition. There shouldn't be that angst. There shouldn't be that hatred, Jew and Gentile. How much more are you and I in the church? Why do I always why why is it republican against democrat? I thought united we stand. Everything's coming down to division. It's crazy. Divide and conquer the strategy of the wicked one. Divide and conquer. But we have access, and nobody can impede, nobody can stop me from that access that I have to the Lord, for the Lord to speak to me, for the Lord to minister to me, so that I can receive from him, so that I can keep going. I know there's gonna be people that always come to our church, this church, his church, and I know there's always gonna be people that leave this church. I tell Rob and Vicky all the time. I tell people, you guys, pretty soon you'll be gone. Oh, no. No. No. Yeah. It's just the way it is here. James, Brian, they're the only ones here from the beginning. Let me tell you something. And when you leave, you're gonna hate me. And it can be something so small. You have to ask yourself, why do I hate him so much? And somebody will say, well, remember when he slapped your wife in the face? Remember when he berated no. That that never happens. But it's demonic is what it is. It's demonic. I'm not allowed to contest flat earth. I gotta apologize because because I had enough gumption to stand up against flat earthers. And then I gotta deal with people standing up in the service, and somehow I'm a monster. That's not a level playing field. You're not playing with a full deck. I'm not a shepherd if I don't stand for God's honor as a God of creation. A little 11 elevens the lump. You can't let that kind of stuff in. Well, know, it's he's just not very loving. And I'd like to say, which I've done with some of the guys, show me what you got. Show Show me what you got. Teach a home bible study. Teach a men's bible study. Show me what you got. You're gonna be able to get the bible through to these people? You're study to show yourself approved? The same kind of critical spirit, once it's imposed upon you, it's like, oh, man, I don't like that scrutiny. I don't like that coming down on me. So we have access. Nobody can keep me there. They can walk out that door, they can ruin your reputation or try to, but nobody can keep you from going to that throne of grace to find help that you need. And the other thing you need to remember is the devil doesn't always have to lie about us. He can say things and even in generalizations about each of us, but is that a work of the Holy Spirit to divide us over our differences, over our frailty, over over our sinfulness even? Are we not to love one another? Does love keep score? In Psalm a 138, if the Lord were to mark iniquities, who could stand? If you guys wanna use the letter of the law to judge one another, you're gonna ruin the koinonia. You're gonna ruin the sweetness and the fellowship. You've gotta look at the spiritual part of it, the means of restoration and love and building one another up. The gossiping and the tongue and the tearing down and the critical spirit, that's what quenches the Holy Spirit and grieves the Holy Spirit and causes church to get sick. So we have to confront heresy, we have to confront things that are wrong, but we do it in love. We have access, boldness to enter into the throne because of the blood of Jesus. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Before Christ, we were destitute, we were despised. And thirdly, before Christ, we were distant. Verse 19. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens. And it's a Greek word, politics, so it speaks of us, you know, we're we're Americans. We're fellow citizens. With the saints of the household of God. Now I said that loosely. Okay? I was just using illustration. It's not saying you're American, but it's it's the sense of I have citizenship. I'm a part of the family of God. I'm a part of the politic with the saints. And of the household of God, there's the family. You're part of the family of God, as he used the word household household here. Here. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles. So Jesus is the rock that upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. And then he upon that, he adds the apostles, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And Peter describes us as lively stones in first Peter, two verse five and eight. We are these lively stones, these living stones that are placed upon the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and so the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner in Psalm a 118. So Jesus is that foundation upon this rock, I'll build my church, and as he's rejected by the religious leaders, he's become the head of the corner, the chief cornerstone, regardless of what they think. But they've stumbled over him in Romans nine. They've stumbled over him at that stumbling block, which is Christ. They don't get it. They missed out on their Messiah. But we see that Jesus in Genesis 49 is that stone. We see in in Daniel two that he's that stone not cut with hands. We see in Exodus 17 that he's the rock that first Corinthians 10 talks about that followed the children of Israel in the wilderness. And God told Moses to smite the rock and that water would come out. Jesus is smitten once the cross of Calvary. Moses speak to the rock next time. He smoked the rock a second time and ruined the type. He's the rock of ages. You speak to the rock now. You speak to Jesus. He's smitten once. You don't you don't have to go be recrucified or recrucify him at a mass. You have boldness to come before his throne of grace to find help. You confess your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive you of sin, to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. You need the holy spirit. You ask, you seek, you knock, you pray. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, would you give him a stone? If you ask for egg or a fish, would you give him a scorpion, a serpent? If you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more? Your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask. Just speak to the rocks. Speak to the speak to the Godhead. Ask God to fill your heart and life to refresh you in your walking relationship with him because you have access now. The foundation of the apostles and prophet Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple. And so you you have the different pictures of a of a body, a picture of the bride, a picture of a temple. And so in first Corinthians three, the temple is mentioned in the plural. We collectively, corporately, are the temple of the Holy Spirit, all of us, as the church. In first Corinthians six, know you not that you're the temple of the Holy Spirit? It's in the singular. You in the singular, body, soul, spirit are the temple, the dwelling place. The father and the son come, and the holy spirit make their abode in you. Jesus said, behold, stand at the door and knock. He's knocking on the door of his church. Let me in. Let me in. The church kicked Jesus out. The beautiful blessing of the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, the the upon work of the Holy Spirit. You're a habitation of God. You're the holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the spirit. And I was thinking of times that I've come to church on many occasions, and and as we worship the Lord, and I just sense his presence, and what a joy and a blessing it is to be with the body of Christ. To just be in the room with you and to worship Jesus. This this temple, this gathering of people collectively, corporately, and to know that he's inhabiting the praises of his people. And what a special special place today, some of you, you're already in your mind, you're in the stadium watching the football game. They can't produce that dynamic. They call them fans. They're gonna be fanatical. They're gonna paint their faces. They're gonna be radical for it, but you as a Christian, you're a Jesus freak. Right? And if you get all that excited about Jesus, people think you're a real freak. You're strange. Hey, pastor Rick, you're a little off. That's right. I am. Sold out for Jesus. Right? So don't let anybody inhibit you and your desire to express your adoration, your worship, your zeal. He said he'd rather you're hot or cold, you're lukewarming, spew out of your mouth, you know. But what a joy and a blessing it would be if the church today, if we were that excited about getting together and worshiping king Jesus. We used to have special nights of worship, invite the community over. I used to just love it. Just love it. Love it. Love it. And young and old, just just just worshiping the Lord when we had the Roxy. So built together for a habitation of God through the spirit. But now in Christ Jesus, we are, according to Ephesians one verse six, we're accepted in the beloved. How? Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So you're accepted in the beloved in Christ. Our sin separated us from God. Our sins caused us to despise him. Our sins made us distant from him. In Isaiah 59 verse one, it says, the Lord hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear too heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who are sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So but now, that was your past condition, but now Paul's saying, it's a new day. Today is the day of salvation. In Romans ten eighty, he says, the word is nigh thee, even in your mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. Now, I wanna stop there for a second. I don't wanna ruin the moment, but you've all know Harari is boasting that he's gonna take words. He thinks this is just a book of words, and he's gonna make something better with AI. An AI religious system with a new AI bible or Koran or whatever they do. He doesn't get it that this word is living. This is the logos. My Jesus, in the in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, without him was not anything made that was made. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his beauty, his glory as the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. You can read this thing as an unbeliever, and it's dry. Has to be mixed with the spirit. But the word itself is God breathed by inspiration of God. Mean, these guys can't they they can't fathom that. They're they're they're like sterile, mechanical, algorithms, you know, man made. Can't come to life. If thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Are you in Christ today? The middle wall is broken down. The veil is rent in two. The handwriting of ordinances in Colossians two that was against us as a contrary to us is nailed to the cross. Jesus paid it all. Your sins have been washed in the blood of the lamb, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, which means God has always loved you. A lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, God has always loved you. It was your sins that separated you. Are you in Christ this morning? Come to Christ. You now have access by a new and living way. In John 14, Jesus said, I am that way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. Jesus said in John 10 that he's the door. You come through him, and he's offering you to come through that door, a new and living way. You have access to the very throne of God in your time of need of fellowship. Each man must choose his own path. You're either in or you're either out, and we exhort you to be in Christ Jesus. In Luke 20 verse 18, Jesus speaking of being this rock, of being the stone, the stone which the builders rejected become the head of the corner in Psalm a hundred and eighteen twenty two. But this stone, this lively stone, this rock that he built his church on, he says that you have a choice. You can come to him and fall upon that rock, and you can be broken in humility, in confessing your sin, and asking Christ in your heart and your life. Or if you reject him, then one day he'll come as that smiting stone. He'll come as that rock of judgment that grinds you to powder in the day of judgment. So much better to come now in humility and in brokenness before him, and cry out to him, God, be merciful to me a sinner. God, I wanna be in Christ Jesus. I wanna be in Christ. I wanna get into the ark. I wanna be in the boat. I wanna be in Christ. I want the wrath of almighty God to be poured out upon his son instead of me. I wanna receive that gift of salvation of eternal life by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you once again, Lord, for the joy and the blessing, the peace, the fruit of the spirit, which is love. And Lord, I pray evermore that we in the church learn to love. Love, love, love. Lord, as Paul's illustrating here, Jew and Gentile, they're at once at enmity. Now we're one in Christ Jesus. We pray there'd be no schisms in the body. We pray, Lord, that we're soft and pliable and humble enough to allow you to build your church upon the rock that you said you'd build. And the Lord, we as lively stones are part of that foundation, that edifices of the body of believers that you're building here at Calvary Bremerton. And Lord, we we pray that we not fall into the trap of allowing the enemy to bring us to that place where we're dividing. We're dividing over Trump. Pastor doesn't love Trump. I gotta leave. I gotta go somewhere else. It's so ludicrous, Lord. So silly. I pray, Lord, that you're the common denominator. That you're the one that binds us. You're the one that makes us one. That we can differ politically, that we can differ in a lot of different ways, a lot of different things. Hold to the truth, be lovers of truth, never back down with the world, but always always love. Even in our differences, Lord, that we love. Lord, I know there's people here that don't believe in a pre trib rapture, but they still love me, and I still love them. That we not divide over peripheral things that cause a division within the body. Lord, we should epitomize what it means to love. Lord, maybe there's some Seahawk fans here today that can love Ram fans or vice versa. People get so fanatical about things, Lord. Do do they really matter? Lord, I pray that we'd love aliens. I pray that we'd love people who have traveled long distances to be here for a better life. And that we'd help them get citizenship, that we'd help them become legal citizens, Lord, just as our people that came before us and our families. Help us to have a a church door that's open for them with respect with the government, with respect for law, do things legally, do things decently and in order. Help us to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves that we not fall into the traps of dividing over peripheral little tiny things that don't matter. You tell us to even love our enemies. So Lord, we pray that you'd be glorified, that you give us the capacity to love those who hate us, to love those who are always waiting for that day where their ears will tingle, and they'll be able to say, did you hear what happened to pastor Rick and Kathy? They're wanting that day, Lord. Help them to love, Lord. Help us to love and not fall in that trap. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if you're here this morning and you don't have that love in your heart, that love for Jesus, you may be religious, you may be on one side as a Jew, the other side is a Gentile, you may be Republican, you may be Democrat. I believe you can be a democrat and be saved. I believe you can be a republican and be saved. I believe whosoever will, let them come. I believe you can be a person that's gay, that's an adulterer, that's a liar, that's a thief. I believe you can be a filthy sinner and be saved. As you turn from your sins and you cry out to God, he promises that he's gonna transform and change you. You're not gonna be a born again adulterer. You're not gonna be a born again whatever your sin is. God's gonna transform and change you. He offers the newness of life. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. He didn't come for the righteous, but for sinners. It's those who are sick that need a physician. He's the great physician. Let Jesus change you. Let Jesus transform you. Let Jesus save you. Be in Christ. Get in the boat. Why face judgment in and of your own strength? You need to be washed in the blood of the lamb. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna introduce you to Jesus. He says, many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name. Do you believe? Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Father, thank you for the security, the peace, the joy. Lord, I don't sense any condemnation. I sense humility. I sense brokenness. I sense, Lord, a sense of awe that your salvation is so great. Lord, there isn't a person here that's minimizing it. There isn't a person here that doesn't appreciate what you're doing for us. As you continue to work in our hearts and lives transforming and changing us in the image of your dear son, heavenly father. Never stop. Lord, we pray evermore that you give us a greater and greater appetite for the things of the spirit. We pray, Lord, that today as we go that we could fellowship with people maybe around a football game or a meal, but, Lord, that the topic of who you are would come up. So many of the football players and people preach Christ, Lord. They use it as a opportunity to preach Christ, and we thank you for that that platform, that place of witness. We pray that you be glorified today, Lord. We pray that you raise up the standard against the wickedness in the land in which we live. We pray that you would bring clarity, that we'd be lovers of truth, that, Lord, that your love and your truth prevail. So blessed, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.