"One People Of God" Ephesians 2:11-22

Pastor Brian leads us through Ephesians chapter 2.

Why Do We Even Write These?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm going to be reading a short passage out of that. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13. That'll help the word. I'm going to ask you to stand with me. We stand in reverence to God for his word. We realize this is, again, not just the words of a man, but this is the word of a holy God, the holy God, to us right here today. Applicable in every way. So we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 11, and we're going to cruise through the rest of the chapter all the way to 22. And so as I read this, remember this is God's word to us. Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 11. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enity. And he came and preached peace to you who are far away, and peace to those who are near. For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Praise be to God. Please be seated. What a joy it is to be able to open up the word and see these wonderful truths. Last week we were blessed to go through the first ten verses of Ephesians 2 where it details out for us who we were and who we are now in Christ, and we see salvation listed out there. And now we get to read further of the fruit of this salvation, of what happens to the people of God. I just want to begin by saying this: our culture, especially I would say, big city culture, is constantly screaming about numerous things. Some of those things we could include would be equality, right? Equity, unity, community. Now, these can be good traits that the Lord puts on our hearts. I mean, we're all born with a desire to live in community. That's right, that's good. We are relational beings. Why? Because God in the Trinity is relational. And so we're created to live as image bearers, we're created to live this way, equal as humans before one another. It's good. But it's just simply unfortunate that, of course, sin has tainted that desire as with anything else that's not of Christ. And so instead of crying out in the streets for all people to come together and worship the one true God, they are crying out for people to really worship at. One of the things we talked about last week, the feet of self. Whether we see this in the abortion debate. Transgenderism, homosexuality, mother earth worship, or even something like critical race theory or intersectionality. It's where we put all of our hopes and all of our dreams and those kinds of things. That's called false worship. Ever since the fall, humans have tried to take and distort and twist those things that may be good, things that we want, and we try to fit it nicely instead into a human-conceived idea of what is right. Unfortunately, when we do that, we are denying the Lord and we end up worshiping this monster. I'm not talking about what what I've been told I look like Bigfoot, but I'm not talking about that kind of monster. I'm talking about the monster of self. Monster of self. And so that definitely defines our culture. And guess what? Here's the thing. As Solomon said with all his wisdom so many years ago, there's nothing new under the sun. It's always been this way, hasn't it? Our culture isn't unique in that. It just looks different in each culture in each time period. But fortunately for us today, we have the answer, don't we? The Christian has the answer to all of what our world is really looking for. We just need to be winsome and tell the truth. And so here's what's really great. One of the wonderful things about the church, this church or the church. Here's what's really neat about being a Christian in our world, even right now here in America. And that's the answer to all the world's problems, the answer is to all the world's hopes and dreams of a better society, more unity, or living without the sinful stain of something like racism. And there's a reason I picked that one, you'll see what I'm saying here in a moment. But with all of that said, the only place to look is to the true church of Jesus Christ. That's the answer. Now I say true church very emphatically. Because down through the years, and yes, there are still today churches, notice my quotation marks, that claim Christ yet spew sin, such as racism. There are definitely churches today that claim to be Bible-centered, but somehow think that transgenderism is a part of God's plan. On and on and on the list goes, right? And so I'm here to tell you today something marvelous in light of all that. If you want to be a part of a people that all collectively condemns sin, condemns things like racism, then there's only one place for you to go, and that's called the church. The church of Jesus Christ, the bride. You're not going to find it out there. It's not out there. I don't care how many rallies, how many laws are put in place, or how many propagandist company meetings that you have to go to. There is but one place to find true equality, and that is with the church before a holy God. All together in desperate need, desperate need for God's grace. And so all on the exact same playing field. It's awesome. And here's the beauty of the church. Unlike the world or even our governing laws, the church has the ability to do something that the others can't. The church has the ability to administer something that nobody really wants to talk about anymore, but we should. And that is church discipline. That's a wonderful thing that God has put in place into his church. When the sin of something like racism rears its ugly head, we have church discipline. The world doesn't have anything like that. The church, the biblical church, will discipline those who are living in unrepentant sin, publicly especially, with the entire goal of restoring you to hell through godly repentance in light of accountability. And so it's just wonderful to be a part of the church. We keep each other on the straight and arrow to some extent. It's awesome. Unfortunately, so many churches will never take this biblical step, even though sin may abound in its congregation. What this means is they're either not the church or they're not acting like the church, one of the two. And so I say all of that, and you're probably like, what on earth? Where are you going with this? I say all that to try to set up what we're about to study today further, and that is this. True community is fostered in right worship and right living. True community is fostered in those things. There is but one universal church of Jesus Christ, and that's played out in the context of the local church, like ours. And so what we find in the Bible is the church is comprised of anybody, anyone, as long as they're a human being, anyone who would but repent, turn from their sin, and cry out to Christ as their Lord and Savior. Praise God. Doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter. The world will try to go for equality and unity and all those things that will fail every single time because self has to be worshipped in their minds. Only the church has true, beautiful unity. It's awesome. And so, with that said, let's dive into the text and I want to see this further. Let's look at the first of our two points. Again, in your bulletin, you have uh, I think a half insert with two points on it for notes if you'd like. First point: Christ brings salvation to all. Christ brings salvation to all. Find this in the first few verses. When Jesus arrives on the scene in Bethlehem, there's no shortage of hatred and animosity toward other people at that time. Okay? That end of BC, into the first century. I mean, what we have is the Jews absolutely, if you look at any of the writings, biblical and not, like Josephus, the Jews absolutely hated the Romans. Hated them. They hated the fact that they're ruling over them, they despised their occupational governing. They wanted nothing more than to overthrow these pagan Gentiles. Hated them. And that's not all. As the Jews looked north, there were a people that they hated for hundreds of years. I mean, with a deep-seated hatred, collectively as a people. They detested those Samaritans. They rejected them because they saw them as half-breeds. Really just another kind of Gentile because they weren't full-on Jewish people. They hated them so much that most of the Jews would walk for miles and miles and miles and miles around to make sure they didn't step foot on Samaritan soil. The Jews, by and large, at the time of Christ's coming, they were the people of God. They believed, therefore, that nobody was worthy of the kind of love and respect that they deserved as the people of God. Does that sound like what the Bible says? Again, not all, but many, many of them in this time. Think of just before this with Jonah. He's kind of a prime example of hatred toward another people, isn't he? He's willing to go so far as to defy and reject his God and his God's word to make sure that another group of people never heard of God's grace. He wanted them in Nineveh to die and be damned. That's his goal. Again, around the time that Christ comes, the Jews had so many laws put in place in this regard, one of which, I'm not kidding, they had it as a law, that they couldn't have midwives to help a Gentile give birth because you're bringing another Gentile into the world. That is racism, by the way. That's nothing new. That's racism, it's bigoted, laws that were put in place not by God, the Jews were not following God's law there, that would be man. That would be man's law. In fact, the Bible says the Jews were called to be a light to the nations the whole time. Not only do we see God graciously bringing people like Rahab in the Old Testament into the full, but we also see God commanding that the servants or foreigners who are in the midst of the Hebrew people need to be circumcised and to offer sacrifices so they can worship God as well. It was open to them if the Israelites would do as they're told. Genesis 12, we see God tells Abraham that all the nations are going to be blessed through his seed. Exodus 9, God sends plagues to Egypt. Remember that? Why? To be mean? Because they were mean to the Israelites? No, I would say the primary reason, there's that, but the primary reason is so that they would know that there is but one God and there is none like him. That's what we see in Exodus. In Isaiah 56, God says that his holy altar shall be a place for all nations to come and pray. So much in the scripture, if you read the Old Testament, that teach us that God intended for the Israelites to be a light into the nations, all nations. Not to hate them, not to see them as unworthy of knowing about God. But that's what ended up happening. And make no mistake, it wasn't just the Israelites who were the aggressors or racist, hateful people. It's pretty much all nations of people, right? Again, nothing new under the sun. America is not unique in its history. It's just our version. Racism is just one sin that is a result of the fall. The Samaritans hated the Jews right back. The Romans despised and hated the Germans. The Egyptians absolutely could not stand the Syrians. On and on and on it goes. Point is. For the Jews, God never intended for them to hate other people groups as he chose them. It didn't work that way, it wasn't supposed to work that way. But instead, be that chosen and set apart nation for his glory, not their own. And so when Paul, back to this, when Paul writes these words in chapter 2, these words would have actually infuriated the Jewish people. But on the flip side, those Gentiles that read this, those ones who had been hated by the Jews who rejected Christ, this was so comforting. They were the far-off ones that Paul's talking about here. They were alienated from the presence of God. They had no hope in this Jewish God because they were uncircumcised, a sign as being of one of God's covenant children. That's what it's talking about, the covenant promises. They needed the Israelites to communicate to them their need of the grace of the one true God. But they were instead far off and far away from that. But it wasn't just the Jews and their refusal to proclaim to them the truth about God. It is, of course, as we read in all the Bible, they're human, they've inherited sin, and so it's their own willful sinfulness of refusing to humble themselves before this God of the Jews. They may not have had the law of God impressed upon them as it was given to Moses, but they had the very law on their hearts, the Bible teaches us in Romans 2.15, for example, since they're image-bearers. Romans 1, creation itself testifies, therefore they're without excuse. And on it goes. And so we see that Paul's talking about they're far off from God, uncircumcised, meaning not a part of the covenant, meaning that they were not of God. They worship false gods instead that they created. They were not in the commonwealth, Paul says, of the Israelites, strangers to the people of God and even to God Himself. Therefore, what this means is before Christ, before their eyes are opened, before Paul shows them the gospel and proclaims it to them that they were without hope. Without Christ. Normal, isn't it? That's what we proclaim today. If somebody doesn't have Christ, they don't have hope. They just create this other thing to worship. A lot of the times it's in the mirror. No hope. They may hope to have that new car one day. They may hope for a new puppy. They may even hope for a precious new baby. But those are wishes. What Paul uh is pointing us to here is this assured hope of eternal life with Christ through the gospel of grace. They did not have this. They had no hope in God, therefore no hope in real life, or in life at all. And that's a tough place to be. Have you ever been there? Everybody should say yes because you weren't born saved. So but we understand to be hopeless is to be depressed. You may mask it. To be hopeless is to be in despair. To be hopeless is to be without God in the world. And so that's the Gentiles, that's their status in life. But there's good news, isn't there? Look at verse 13. Look at verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near. Or brought close by the blood of Christ. Second point. Christ obliterated that which separated the Jews and Gentiles. We're gonna see this in basically the rest of the passage. Look again at verse 13. You have been brought near by the blood of Christ. If you're a Christian today, doesn't matter if you got a Jewish heritage or a Gentile heritage of so many other nations, when you are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, you are then defined as God's child forever. Do you know this? And guess what? God doesn't have illegitimate children, does he? He doesn't have second-class kids. He doesn't allow the ones that are good, that he really likes to have this nice, what do we sing about mansions in heaven, right? So he doesn't get the, you know, the one kid gets the plush room with all the toys and the wonderful things, while there's this other kid, you know, what what do we define that as the redheaded stepchild or whatever, okay? Uh that he just barely allows to be considered his and sits him out in the in the barn with the snakes and spiders and the freezing cold, and it's damp and it's dirty. God doesn't say, well, he should just be thankful I let him in. Does that sound like God? Of course not. Those who are his by faith are fully his. Hope-filled, blessed, sanctified, adopted children who are brought near how? By his blood. And his blood is sufficient. And so what we find scripturally is that you and I, as we're brought near, we are then united with Christ. If you are washed in his blood, then you are as cleansed as the person next to you, no matter your background, no matter their background. They may be more sanctified than you are, but they are not more saved nor loved than you are if they're in Christ. And remember, our context for today in regards to Jew and Gentile, Paul is making this point really clear by proclaiming the truth that Christ has obliterated the dividing wall. It's gone. There is no longer a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. They are one people if they're in Christ. All have been brought near. This would have been just bold and absolutely wonderful language to those predominantly Gentiles there in Ephesus. We have to remember that in this time in Jerusalem, uh, there's a temple. Okay, remember that. And on the temple there's this outer court, often called the Gentile court, had other names, but often called that. It was a one and only place. The Gentiles were allowed to be on the property. Okay? There was a wall that separated what went on inside from them and what took place in the court on the outside. And so Paul is no doubt using that in his imagery, and it's stark and it's beautiful. The wall, as it were, having been pulverized by the Lord, now there's just one people of God. And they they now, the Gentiles, can now read Exodus 19 that speaks of the chosen people of God, and they can actually apply it to themselves. So can we. As first as Peter does in the second chapter of his first letter. They are now in. In through Christ. No more division, no more separation, just one new people for God. Now, we know there's still many races of people based on skin color, ethnic background in this earth, right? In God's economy? There's two races of people. One race of people that are his and one that's not. That's all it is. No, I'm not saying we can pretend and say that people don't have different backgrounds, different different skin colors, and say, oh, I don't see color. Okay, I get the sentiment. But what the church can say is that we're all truly equal in his sight no matter what. And again, I say that it is the church and the church alone that can gloriously and truly proclaim this. Praise God. Not because we're so great, but because he has done great things. Because he has done great things. And so there are now Christians and non-Christians. Children of God. And as we looked at last time, children of the evil one. That's it. Different ethnicities, different shades. People of God. Not people of God. And as Christ rose from the dead, not only was the veil torn, exposing the Holy of Holies, for all of his people to have access to, but in that, again, there's one people of God, the wall of separation for the Jew and the Gentile was crushed, and all of the rubble was instantly removed. And I want you to know, this isn't something he's like, oh man, they're fighting. I gotta figure something out. They don't really like each other. That's weird. That's not how this works. This is always God's plan. Always. And so going forward, what we can find is, as Paul speaks of here, nothing can separate the worship-filled people of God ever again. All other creeds, all other viewpoints, all other preferences, all other desires, all other affiliations, all other hopes and dreams are set aside because a dividing wall has been destroyed and there's two people that have become one. There are no longer two classes of people in that way. There are not Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians as though they had different ranks. It's not like that. There are no aristocrats and peasants in the faith. Okay. Now we have just the people of God and the people of the world. Nothing more, nothing less. And please hear this. There is no Jew that will be with God if he or if he is not in Christ today. There is no Gentile that will find a path to heaven outside of the way, the truth, and the life, who is Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as anyone, no matter their color or creed, being saved apart from the work and blood of Jesus Christ. That's how it is. And what this means is something glorious. It means that anybody who comes to Christ is saved uniquely and equally. Now, all who are in Christ are called, what the Bible says is uh the Greek word is ecclesia or called out ones, and what that really is is the church. It's the church. Not that you may have heard of the phrase replacement theology. It's not that, it's fulfilled. Fulfilled theology. A church fulfilled. Now, with that said, that beautiful thing that's just exposed to us here, with that said, we must answer how did he do this? Look at the text, look at verse 14. Verse 14 says something simple yet profound, that he is our peace. Remember Isaiah 9, 6 to 7, that wonderful Christmas passage? It says Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He brought peace to a world that cannot know it. He brought peace to thousands of years of war, not politically or socially, but in the hearts of men. War against him. Peace to those who cling to this prince. And so he took two, in that, he took two warring and hateful groups of people, and through the common gift of faith in the gospel, Jesus made eternal peace between them and God and each other. And then we read in verse 15, as we continue on, that has to do with what that's being said. It says that Jesus abolished the law. Hmm. So he's made peace between them, between Jew and Gentile. There's just one in Christ, and in that he abolished the law. Now you may be saying to yourself, hang on a second. I thought you said many times that the Ten Commandments are still relevant. The law is still fully intact in that way, even for today. Maybe you're saying, those of you who attended Sunday school this morning, wait a minute. Didn't we just read that Jesus didn't do that, but he fulfilled the law? He said he came and fulfilled the law, and the law is good. Is Paul at odds with Jesus here? What Paul is speaking of here is that the ceremonial or sacrificial parts of the law that were meant for the people of God in the Old Testament? The sacrificial system that had as its primary function to point them to the Messiah who would come. That and the whole of the ceremonial system, those laws, those were fulfilled in Christ and done away with by Christ. Given that his life in his ministry is the fulfillment of them. Not the Ten Commandments. Those are still relevant. So those were the fulfill Jesus is the fulfillment of all of those pieces. And at one time, the context here lends itself to remind us that at one time the Gentiles would have actually been ceremonially unclean. Or ritually unclean. But through Christ they've been brought near. So yeah, the law of God and the Ten Commandments, summarized in love the Lord your God alone and love your neighbor as yourself, as Jesus says, 100% relevant. Jesus details that out for us in the New Testament. But the sa we don't need to sacrifice anymore, do we? Why? Because, as the author of Hebrews says, it's done away with. Because the one great, ultimate, perfect sacrifice has come. Praise God. And so all of that is set aside. And let's just look at what the result is here in our context is one new man, it says. One church, one people, one bride. Again, I just I gotta reiterate this because there's so many things that are being taught out there today. There are not two brides for Christ. Jesus Christ is not a polygamist. It isn't Israel without Christ, and then there's the church. It is the church and the church alone, whether Jew or Gentile. Doesn't matter your history. Christ, the Messiah, is who the Jews are waiting for, and now that he has come, he has secured the remnants of those Jews through his blood, and he's made peace between them and himself and any Gentile who would believe. One new man, one new church, one new bride with Christ as the head. And just so Paul's 100% abundantly clear here, he goes on to quote Isaiah 57, verse 17. Just to make sure Paul isn't accused of creating some newfangled religion that God didn't ordain, he quotes Isaiah and reminds the Jews who would be reading this: hey, this is always to be the plan. In that passage, it talks about peace to those who are far away, Gentiles, peace to those who are near, Jews. Both peoples now have the same access to God. Again, God doesn't have illegitimate children. He doesn't have classes of kids. The veil is torn, isn't it? The Holy of Holies is exposed. And now, no matter your lineage, no matter your heritage, just set aside your family stuff. No matter your economic background, no matter your ethnicity, we are one if we're in Christ. One in the Father and the Spirit. And I gotta point out one thing here. I want you to notice the triune nature of this reconciliation. Remember, our God is triune, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It is accomplished through the work of the Son, paid for by his blood, brought near by his blood, and we're then brought near through the work of the Spirit as He regenerates our very souls and He knits them together as one people. Colossians 2.2 says that He knit us together. Titus 3, I think it's verse 3, talks about the regeneration that the Spirit causes in our lives. And this is all done so that we are brought to the Father. Trying God all over the pages of our testimony. And now we can come to the Father together as one people through the work of Christ and the power of the Spirit. And yes, that is for us today, isn't it? Jesus didn't come to just merely make a new man out of the Jews and Gentiles of the first century and then leave it to us today to pick and choose what people get into the church. There is one race let into the church. One race. And that is the race of Christians. Doesn't matter what they look like, doesn't matter where they came from. And by church I don't mean building, I mean the people of God. I know for some of you it's really fun to find out your heritage from maybe an ancestral search website or your ancestry, but in the eternal sense of things, it really doesn't mean anything. Nothing wrong with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that. But eternally, you're not like this Irish Christian, half Irish kind of half Christian. It's not that. You're not half German, half African, half Asian, half American, or half Jewish. If you're in Christ, you're a Christian. Your earthly people group may have come from this place, may have come from that place, but that doesn't equate into the eternal scope of things. And here's something interesting, by the way. I think this helps. In AD 70, you may have heard of this big thing that happened in Jerusalem. In AD 70, right there in Jerusalem, this Roman general named Titus came to squelch a rebellion of Jewish zealots, and what he did was absolutely devastating. He not only crushed the uprising, he not only killed many, many people, many Jews, innocent or not. It was a horrible time. He not only completely destroyed and desecrated the temple, but he made it so the Jews, in one way, could no longer definitively affirm their ancient heritage, since most people think that the written records of their old lineages were burned and destroyed there. I would say, I believe that's true based on some historical accounts. And if it is, I think this was God's providence in numerous ways. For one, it was a time of fulfillment of some prophecy that Jesus said, that's for another day. But it was also another piece of the puzzle that pointed the Jews to rely on God. And to rely more on God than their temple or their records of lineage. See, they focus way too much on that stuff. They were to call out to Christ in the time of this painful suffering, and through Christ realized they didn't even need those records. They just needed Christ alone to save them. It's not about their heritage, it's about Jesus. And if all that's not beautiful enough for you this morning, Paul's not quite done describing the beauty of us all being one and calling on one Father, as verse 18 states. Because we see in the last few verses, in 19 to 22, we see a few other ways in which Paul identifies us as God's people. He says in verse 19 that there is one people of God, and they are citizens. Isn't that cool? I love that language. Citizens, citizens of America, of course, right?

unknown 35:49

No.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Oh, another national utopia that we're waiting for, right? No. We are citizens of the greatest kingdom that could ever exist, the greatest nation that could ever exist. That's the church or the kingdom of God. We are citizens with all the saints in the church of Jesus Christ. Now, this would have been absolutely profound, all these Gentiles hearing it. They knew that they were alienated from the Jewish people, separated, and they felt not good enough for their religion because they weren't the right kind of people, according to the Jesus of the day. But now in Christ, they're equal citizens with equal rights and equal access to the Father of all heavenly blessings. That is us today, if you're in Christ. We are aliens and strangers here on this earth now. Isn't that good? 1 Peter 1 tells us that we're aliens and strangers here because we have a citizenship in heaven. But here today, we're together in this, aren't we? We're together as one people, waiting for the arrival of our King and our full citizenship. One people, Jew, Gentile, white, black, brown, male, female, old, young. Anybody who's in Christ is a citizen saint in the Lord. Rejoice. Paul also says that we are of God's own household. Hmm. I mean, as if being a citizen of the Lord's kingdom wasn't good enough. This states we're also a part of the family, is this point. Adopted heirs with Christ. You see, as verse 20 states, the apostles and prophets were always pointing to this day, to this time when Christ would come and save a people for himself. And the New Testament writers even knew that. It would be a new people, a bride for the bridegroom, a beautiful new race of people for his own possession and glory. A people who are one and the same, maybe not in looks or status on this earth, but one with him, cleansed by the same blood that came from the cross and now a part of the family. And so those sitting near you right now, if they're in Christ, they're not merely your acquaintances. They're not even just the people that you go to church with. They're your family. They're your family. We're family. You look at me and you're like, oh. Family? Do we have to be? Yeah. I'm your family member. And you're mine. Eternally. Isn't that good? Eternally. A family that has far stronger ties than just mere bloodline or earthly kinship. This family is therefore separated and set apart for eternal praise of the king with one voice and one beating heart. I like to say it's a heart that is beating to the rhythm of the gospel. How is this done? How can this ever continue without crumbling? How does it stand? Because as verse 20 tells us Jesus Himself is the very cornerstone of that household. It's on him we stand. Now many of us today we don't really understand this kind of imagery where there's this cornerstone that had to be absolutely perfect. I'm sure Joel and others know this well. But that cornerstone had to be without flaws, or the whole thing's gonna be off and it will collapse. If you don't get the cornerstone right, then all your levels are gonna be off and your building's not gonna be square, and it's gonna look like something that the Italians built. Now, I'm not just poking at Italians, okay? It doesn't matter about heritage, remember? But it's gonna end up looking like something that leans four degrees, and now we call it what? A leaning tower. Why? Foundation problems. Flawed foundation. Jesus is the only chief cornerstone that could be in place to have a spiritual house from him and create a perfectly square structure. Christ is the sure foundation, we sing at this church. He is the sure foundation of his saints. As 1 Peter 1 says, uh 1 Peter 2 1, 2, Jesus is the living stone. Notice that word, living stone. That shows us two things. One, he's living. What that means is he's from everlasting to everlasting. He has always been. What that means is he has eternal life internally. What I mean is he is not only eternal, but able to give eternal life. In him, eternal springs of water flow. Only through him is there found the fountain of eternal life. You ever seen those dumb movies that depict that where somebody's going out to find the spring of eternal life? Right? Just get a glass of that, I'll be good. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. We who are in him know that Christ alone is the fountain of life everlasting. He is the living, the eternally living stone. I know that kind of is weird to think about. He's unbreakable, though. He's living and solid, immovable, strong, powerful, whatever word you want to use. He's the invincible stone that can never be broken or crushed. The cornerstone that the house is built on. He is this stone does not chip, it does not crack, it does not get those cracks you've got to try to fill later. He is the cornerstone that is supremely strong, a rock that cannot be moved nor changed. He is perfect durability. What this means is that we are a people who are being fitted together on that cornerstone. Together. Doesn't matter your background, remember that? Together. We are the superstructure, if you will, being built on this perfect foundation stone who is none other than Christ Himself. We were, all of us were a people that had no claim to true community, true unity, really no claim to mercy. And now through him, we're not only called a people, but now we know together this everlasting mercy, arm in arm. What this means is that Christ is the sure foundation of his people, as this perfect and living stone, that this therefore means that his people are now a separated people. That was my point. No longer separated from each other by race or by worship, but now united as a separated people from the world. We're a unique people that he has set apart. Image bearers of God. Now all people are image bearers of God, is his unique creation. But it is only through rebirth that we become children of God eternally, that we become a part of the spiritual house for God's own possession. And to me, now that he's opened my eyes, I i it boggles my mind, but this is true that there are those who oppose him. Who actually oppose the idea, the thought of being a part of this kind of house, both Jew and Gentile alike. But to those who are in Christ, what is this stone, this cornerstone? It's precious. It's our foundation. This is the cornerstone of our faith and our life, our eternal life. It's a cornerstone of our unity. We're bound together on the rock. And here's the thing that makes all of God's people a holy temple. A dwelling place of the Lord's in one spirit. One in the blood of Christ to the glory of Christ. And I think this is just one way. Piece of the puzzle that causes us to marvel at this gospel right now and will lead us to marvel at his gospel for all of eternity. He has brought those from far and those who are near to become this one people in him, built up together on the rock. Isn't that comforting? Isn't he great? I mean, you look at the big cities and you see these rallies, and people are wanting equity and equality and all that. And they're just worshiping the wrong thing. They're sinfully wanting something that is wrong. And we're standing here going, we have it. We have it. Let's proclaim it. I mean, what a joy to know that there is no one greater than another one in this church. It's just Christ. We're all needy for grace, we're all desperate for mercy. I mean, even if you think, you know, worldwide, from the man in the Siberian wilderness of Russia to the farmer working in the Patagonia, doesn't matter. From the herder moving about in the wilds of Middle East, even Iran today, to the construction worker in Bangkok, from the African nurse to the American miner, all equally desperately needy of the Savior, equally needing to be called a saint of the Lord's, all together in this need. And all who profess him, all who turn to him, near or far, will worship side by side with one purpose in heaven. And that is collective worship at the feet of Christ. Falling down before this chief cornerstone on whom they have been built and therefore banded together. And so we just conclude this morning by saying this. I just want his name to be praised in our church as he overcomes the sinful separations that we see that exist in our society, and therefore he determined to separate a people for his own glory. And I want you to look one more time, real quick, at verse 22. On Christ, this chief cornerstone, we're being built into a spiritual house comprised of God's people, as I mentioned, eternally, I'll call it covenanted, but I'll call it cemented together for his glory. And just look at what this means. It means that we become the dwelling place of God together. Yeah, you and I got to be blown away by that. The dwelling place of God together. The temple where God chooses to dwell. Do you realize that? How are we doing with this? Does our church vibrantly display that we are the dwelling place of God in the midst of this chaotic and cursed world? May it be said of us that there is just overwhelming support, overwhelming evidence in our lives to show that God Himself is dwelling with and in us as a family for the glory of his name. Let's be that people as we follow Him together. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word to us. We thank you that you have busted down the dividing wall that separated a sinful people, and that you have redeemed and reclaimed and chosen a people for your own glory so that you would be honored, so that we would be blessed. Father, may we represent well the beauty and truth of who you are to this dying world. Let us show them what it looks like to be one, to be one people, to be one in purpose, in unity. We thank you for this gift of life in this way. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.