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We begin our reading of Holy Scripture this evening in the book of Psalms, Psalm eighty— sixty eight. Psalm sixty eight. Psalm 68 and verse 14. 14. When the Almighty scattered kings therein, it was as when it snoweth in Salmo. A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan. A high mountain is the mountain of Bashan. Why, look ye askance, ye high mountains, at the mountain which God hath desired for his abode. Nay, the Lord will dwell in it forever. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the sanctuary. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts among men, yea, among the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell with them. And so much for the Old Testament reading, and we shall find it relevant subsequently as now we proceed to our epistle to the Ephesians and begin reading in chapter three. Chapter three and verse one: For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, in behalf of you Gentiles, if so be that you have heard of the dispensation of that grace of God which was given me to you, Lord, how that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in few words, whereby when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. To wit, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages has been hidden God, who created all things. With the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in. Wherefore I ask that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which are your glory. Chapter four and verse one: I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now this, he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error, that speaking truth in love may grow up in all things unto him which is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. And God grant that as we read and think about his word, we shall experience the ministry of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. This is the second evening that we plan to spend, God willing, considering the second great movement of thought in the Epistle to the Ephesians. That movement last night, we noticed, extends from chapter two and verse eleven to chapter four and verse 16. And we discovered that movement two had for its major theme the purpose of God in history, in time and space. The purpose of God to form for himself within time and space. A dwelling place. We reminded ourselves last evening that even in its final form, the great dwelling place of God is to be located in time and space. For when John sees the vision of the holy city coming down from heaven, he's not only informed that this holy city shall form God his tabernacle, by the means of which he dwells among the nations of the earth, that John is given to see very clearly that that final and eternal dwelling place of God is not hid away in some far remote heaven, but comes down out of heaven and comes toward earth, the linking place between heaven and earth, very much therefore in time and space. We were reminding ourselves last night too, that our blessed Lord Jesus, who has given effect and shall yet give greater effect to this determination of God to have a dwelling place in time and space. Has himself done a superbly wonderful thing, and staggering beyond our wildest imaginations. Why the uncreate God has taken a body and become flesh. Not only for the time of his sojourning amongst us here on this planet, but praise God, in his ascension far above all heavens, he retains that human body. Difficult as it is and impossible for us mere creatures to explain how the infinite uncreate God, transcendent Lord over time and space, can yet have a body with its measurements. Yet scripture affirms it, and we believe it. Ha. And the disciples who just a moment, a moment ago, felt his body and felt it was flesh and bone, and saw him go. We're told that that same Jesus shall come with a glorified body, a body still of flesh and bone. So determined is God to have a dwelling place within time and space. And therefore, we noticed last night how that this second great movement in Ephesians is concerned with God's purposes in history. And we noticed further that when God set his heart on this great project of having a dwelling place, God didn't insist or attempt to have that purpose fully fulfilled all in one go, but was content to do it stage by stage. And that very design of God to come at this purpose stage by stage by stage, we noticed last night, is what gives to history its very interesting progress, real progress, permanent progress. And means that the progress we may have noticed in history is not an illusion, shall not all come to nothing in the end, is real progress on all fronts, and is the ground of great hope for those who know the Savior. We noticed, uh, likewise, of course, that in the prior age, the age of God's special dealing with the Jew, God was content to have as a dwelling place a mere tabernacle made of gold and silver and wood and cloth and whatnot. After that, he was content to have a temple a bit more permanent, built of stone. Yes, but then we noticed how that this in this age, God's purpose has moved on, not just with a bigger temple than he had before, just continuing with the same idea but enlarging it a bit, but with a new kind of a temple. There's been progress, not merely linearly, as they would say, there's been a progress in category. And in this age, the exciting thing is not that we have a bigger temple than even Solomon thought up, or a bigger temple than Herod himself could possibly build. We have a different kind of a temple. It is more magnificent than Herod's temple, than heaven is more magnificent than earth, and now God has a dwelling place in time and space still. A dwelling place formed of redeemed human personalities. And the progress we can see between that age and this age sets us all agog, doesn't it? We're not wanting necessarily to go home to heaven tomorrow, though some of us wouldn't mind, but sets us all agog to see the next big move. Oh, how we shall be surprised, shall we? Just as you might have been surprised had you been living in the Jewish age and read the stories about temples and things, you might have been surprised out of your mind almost to see God's new invention, something far bigger than even you thought when you read the Old Testament prophets. Uh-huh. And when we see the great unveiling of the finished thing, we will be staggered with the newness and the unexpectedness and the wonder of the rise in category. And of course, along with that, we thought last night from our movement too of that related topic, the body of Christ and the formation of the body of Christ. You'll not read a word of that in the Old Testament, will you? But now God's ways of dealing with men have progressed. And in this age, God has gone and done a new thing, the likes of which nobody ever expected or heard of. And so God's ways, we learned last night, have and are and will progress, and it makes of history an exceedingly exciting thing. You never know next what God has up his sleeve. And then we spent a long time last night thinking about God's ways with Israel in the past. You see, we did notice that while God has been content to do things in stages, we are not to think that the early stages of his purpose were kind of a makeshift, do the best we can for the moment, unfortunately it's not very good. Of course not. Every stage in God's working in history has been the product of divine and flawless wisdom. The very best that God could do for that particular age. And so it was, of course, with God's ways among in history with the Jews. And we spent a long time last night, some people thought too long, I'm sure, thinking of the wisdom of God's ways with the Gentiles in that far off days when he called out Abraham and from Abraham made a special nation called the circumcision, because that nation stood in special relationship with God. We saw how it was God's protest, and yet at the same time a kind of gospel preaching to the nations around. His protest against their idolatry, his reaffirmation of what the living God is like. God's protest through Israel and the law he gave them against the nation's uncleanness in which they were getting ever more deeply submerged. At the same time, it was God's indication that, uh, there was a progress in history, for he gave to Abraham the covenant of promise that one day, through Abraham and his seed, the Messiah of the world would come and give Israel an outstanding inheritance in this world, and through the Messiah restore all things. That was the promise given to Israel, and it stood for centuries. This revelation of God to Israel. As a divine voice, a unique message, a veritable gospel in the world. A gospel that we still need. We still need the protest against idolatry. We still need the protest against man's uncleanness, and still and ever more we need the affirmation in a world that's lost because it doesn't have any hope. We need the affirmation that this is God's world, and God has a purpose, not merely for some remote eternity. God has a purpose in this world. Of course, this too we found last night, God's dealing with the nations in the time of Israel wasn't his final answer to man's need. And because it wasn't the final answer, but only one of the preliminary stages. It caused in its way, if you won't mind my saying so, it caused some unfortunate results. It did it this way round. The very fact that God chose Abraham and started the new race from him, distinct from the other Gentile nations, emphasize the distance between the Gentiles and God. It wasn't God's fault, was it? They'd already gone away. It wasn't God who created the distance. Man had once known God, but not liking to retain God in their knowledge, they'd gone from God with all their supposedly subtle philosophical notions. Gone lost in their idolatry. They were already at a distance, but when God chose out Abraham and revealed himself to Abraham and the nation of the Jew, he did not emphasize the vast difference that had opened up between God and the Gentiles. It emphasized also the sinfulness of the Gentiles. God didn't make them sinful. But you see, when God gave his law to the people, he had to say, now look, here is the true God, not there. Jehovah is the true God, not Baal, not Zeus, not Aphrodite, not all the rest of the crew, but here is the true God. And he likewise had to say, here is health, here is sanity, here is purity, here is love, and these things are perversions. He commands his people, therefore, through the law, that they didn't behave like the Gentile nations around them. That emphasized the sinfulness of the Gentiles. And the fact that then God gave a covenant to Abraham with a promise that should be fulfilled later on in history did but emphasize the sorry, drear fact that the Gentile without God had no hope. That didn't mean that it was hopeless to try and get Gentiles saved. Thank God it didn't mean that, for some of them did get saved. But it did emphasize the fact that as far as history was concerned, the Gentiles had no hope, they had no scheme, they had their philosophies, none of them had any real hope for this world. Any more than their modern equivalent has any real substantial valid hope for this world, apart from God. So we thought last night. Tonight we take up our topic. What I want now to do is just to spend a very few moments on the end verses of chapter two and then move on to chapter three and four. I want just to summarize what we began to look at then, where the apostle describes the tremendous difference in God's actions and ways with men that has come about through the coming of the Messiah. And when we have looked at that, and we shall not need to take long at it because you know this particular part very well indeed, we shall need only to summarize it. But when we have grasped again and emphasized the tremendous step forward in God's dealing with the Gentiles that's been brought about by the coming into our world of Messiah, then we can go on to look at those other examples of progress in history that the work of God has taken since the coming of Messiah. And so sharpen our hope and expectation for that next great step that shall take place when the Lord shall come again and the great dwelling place of God in time and space be complete. What new move then did Messiah make when he came into the world? What new move did he make in regard to the Gentiles? Well, if you care to cast your eye down the verses, they tell us in succession as follows. The first thing it mentions is he abolished the distance. Oh, what volumes it tells us about the heart of God. A God who desired to dwell with men and in men. What broke his heart at the sight of Gentiles going off into their perversions, the first thing that broke his heart was the distance. He had it in his heart from all eternity, not only to make man, but to come and dwell in man. The thing that broke the very heart of God was the distance that opened up. Therefore, when the inspired apostle comes to tell of what Christ came to do, the very first thing he notices, he abolished the distance. Uh, now, verse thirteen: in Christ Jesus, you that once were afar off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. Notice not now, it's a question not now so much of forgiveness, though that is true. Of course, it's a case of redemption. Notice the reference to the blood of Christ. But now it's not so much the justification that's been brought for us or the redemption that's brought for us. It is this great marvelous fact that we have been made nigh. And all that terrible distance that his law had to emphasize has been done away through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So near, so very near to God. Nearer I could not be. For in the person of his son, I am as near as As he he. Oh, or praise God for it, my brother. I know this is a rather dry and detailed b- Bible study, but, uh, take two seconds off to praise the Lord just now, won't you? Oh, what had happened to you had that distance remained? Oh, what had had happened to us if that great gulf had forever had become fixed? Fixed! As there came one, and he strode across the distance, and he paid the price of sin, and in him we are made nigh. Near enough for God to dwell in us. And then he abolished something else, says our verse. He abolished the middle wall of petition, and that made peace between Jew and Gentile. Not, of course, peace between Jew and Gentile in the world. The Palestinians still fight the Israelis, and the Israelis still fight the Palestinians. There is no permanent peace except in Christ, but in Christ. He broke down the middle wall of petition. And without having the time to explain it, I must state it dogmatically, I understand the Greek to say that the middle wall of petition was the enmity that had sprung up between Jew and Gentile. That he destroyed. Another bit of distance gone. Another bit of separation gone. How did he destroy that enmity? Well, the next clause will tell us. You'll see he abolished in his flesh the er- the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Let's be careful to consider in what sense he abolished it. Didn't say that the law of God didn't matter. He certainly didn't say the law of God was wrong. That law had fulfilled, and still does, its special and very necessary function of pointing out man's sin. But the law couldn't save anybody. It couldn't save the Gentiles. It couldn't even save the Jews. And we know it from our own personal experience, do we not? That it is oftentimes the very law of God that witnesses against our sin that has the reaction of making us rebel against God. And not only rebel against God, but to hate the very people that quote the law. Preachers aren't all that important, uh, uh, popular, are they? In certain quarters. Like the people that probe our consciences and remind us we're sinners. And there was added to it the sad fact that the very Jews through whom God spoke the law abused it, imagined that they could get to God's heaven by keeping it, which showed how little they knew it, and then paraded themselves as though they were superior to the Gentile, and with a curl of the lips said, you know, talk to those uncircumcised Gentiles. Poof. So they were somehow better. You know what that did to Gentiles, because you're a Gentile, aren't you, Watson? They hated these Jews. They hated the God they stood for and the law they stood for. Pride in Jew and enmity in Gentile had been the unfortunate result of that law, and it wasn't the law's fault either. But even had it not produced that result, it was no way of forgiveness, no way of closing the gap, no way of stopping the enmity. Therefore, God's ways with men had to take a new step forward, and it did so in Jesus Christ, in his flesh, in becoming human, in bearing the penalty of the law in his own body on the tree. He was able not only to pay the penalty of the law and thus uphold it, but put it aside as a way of salvation and open up the way of salvation that is by the grace and the blood of Christ. So that now Jew and Gentile can find salvation on exactly the same ground. For there is no difference. For all have sinned, be they Jew or Gentile. And thank God there is no difference in this, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, be they Jew or Gentile, shall be saved. And then, of course, he, uh, not only abolished things, our verses tell us that like a good builder, when he's demolished the bad things, then he starts to build the good things, doesn't he? And having abolished the bad, he started to create the new. And this was the very exciting bit. Those people had heard of forgiveness before, they'd never heard of this before. He took the Jew and he took the Gentile, and of the two he made one new man. That was utterly revolutionary. Pray notice what he did. He didn't take the Jew and then say, we'll add a lot of Gentiles to you, because if he had, you know, the Jews would have said, yes, but of course we were here first here, weren't we? Of course we are the super duperes. We are the originals. You were allowed to come in, like the Irish to Northern Ireland, but we were here first. Oh, God saw to that, nothing like that happened. Because they weren't there first. You say they were in history. Oh, I know they were first in history, but not in the body of Christ. But the body of Christ isn't all Judaism with a few Gentiles tagged on. It's an utterly new thing. He created one new man by baptizing both Jew and Gentile in one spirit into one body. And then... they introduced them both to God. Do you see how the thought is going? For we're thinking about God's purpose. God wanted the dwelling place in time and space. And he had that old dwelling place in Israel with the tabernacle and the law inside it and a wall around it that kept Gentiles out. That could never be the final answer, could it? Guarding a little tabernacle at one funny corner of the wilderness, about two square yards big on a vast, vast world. Lost to him. Oh, he not only wanted the old wall down and the Jew and Gentile put in one new man, but now, now here comes the purpose. They've got to be reconciled to God. How did he do the reconciliation? On what grounds? Here, God, of course you know these folks. These are the privileged lot. These were sinners, but not such bad sinners after all. These are the Jews. They, no, no, no. They reconciled both to God in one body. No superiority here. Introduced to God on the same ground. Introduced them and reconciled them through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And then to add the crowning thing. God wants to dwell amongst men. The opposite side of that coin is that men must have access to God. The distance now eventually covered, for through him we both have access, that is to God, in one spirit. And with that, the plan is now steaming ahead that God has set his heart upon to have a dwelling place, a temple, and therefore being built upon this foundation, being built, you'll see, growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Let that do for the summary of those verses. Crude, I know, but what I want to get across is this idea of progress. Progress in God's way with the Gentiles from one age to the next age. But chapter three will continue the story, and so will chapter four. for chapter three will introduce us to two um more examples of this business of progress. Progress in the ways of God within. We've been thinking now, not of the Jewish age, but after that, the coming of the Lord Jesus. We've been thinking of his death at Calvary. We're thinking how he rose again and how through his apostles he came and he preached. Oh, I like that little bit, don't you? Well, it was not enough for the risen Lord that he had made the basis of salvation by dying at the cross. There were the Gentiles stuck out there in Asia Minor, in Rome, in Greece, in Timbuktu, and Ballyhaca more. Oh! Prepared just to have the gospel made possible. What a lovely time. He came and he preached. And I think of the man who wrote those words, the man who, who, who brought the gospel to Europe and paid so dearly for bringing it. The man under God to whom we owe our salvation. Many a day, many a day in Paul the Apostle, the risen Lord by his spirit came and preached. And still he comes. Oh, what a lovely thing in this man and in that man, in office, in school, in preaching hall, through evangelist, through Sunday school teacher and Bible class leader, the risen Lord comes and he preaches, closing the distance between God and man.