Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Made close

Made Close or Brought Near as the terms of the American Standard, which were typically quoted, puts it. And so we have this big picture here. We have cut it off from May, having already addressed that. So here for the month of June, we have this plan. June 3rd is Made Close, Brought Near, which is today. And then next week, Confident Access.

And then we'll want to explore a couple of identification truths passages. They're specifically focused on Romans chapter 7, but also others. So anyway, we'll be looking at that. One of the things we have here is the identification truths, as we've said before, the front door to our unfathomable riches. By the way, let's think.

Suppose you weren't in the heavenlies in Christ. Would you have any blessings for sure? No. So basically, here's the Apostle Paul writing the Church at Ephesus. We'll be looking at Ephesus today in today's passage and in the next one. Here's the Apostle Paul. He's writing the Church at Ephesus.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So what you have there is all of our spiritual blessings, all of our unfathomable riches, to give it another term, are in Christ. Being in Christ is not just part of the collection. It's the front door. Everything else comes from it. And we'll find that that is just exactly the case with being brought near, having been brought near. So that's one.

And as we'll see in Ephesians 2.13, he continues to make the point, but now in Christ, you who formerly were far off have been made near. So let's put it this way. If you were not in Christ, would you have been brought near? No. Not happening. So, in Christ is not a nice incidental, it's an absolute essential.

This is how God gets it done for those of us who are the body of Christ, from Acts 2 to the day of the rapture, which I hope is today. So, we also have, in recent months, we've seen an unfathomable riches chain for the believer in Christ by faith. so that the believer has redemption and forgiveness of sins, remember that we call that a spiritual possession, has redemption and forgiveness of sins so that God justifies, that means he declares righteous, the believer who has peace with God and stands in grace. So as opposed to being far off, separated, and alienated, believers are brought near. Now, here's something we're going to see as we get into the passage.

It's specifically spoken regarding Gentiles. Do we have any Jews in the room? No. OK. So this is specifically regarding Gentiles. And myself, I'm a northern European mongrel. If I have Jewish ancestry, I can't tell you what it is. So, it may be a psalm way, way back there, a little tiny, teensy-weensy little bit, but I'm not aware of it. So now, so this cluster here of the unfathomable riches of the perpetuation by Christ's blood, the satisfaction of God's character, right, includes adoption of sons, children of God and sons of God, Christ's brethren, And now, today, brought near.

Is that the end? No, it's not. There's more to it, and we'll be looking at one more part of that, and that's confident access. By the way, that's really cool. So, after the brought-near aspect of our unfathomable riches will explore confident access, brought-near is a central theme of this passage in Ephesians. So, by the way, they just finished up chapter 2 in the Ephesians elective. kind of tracking it. So they've already gone through this, but for us what we're going to find is that there's more than just simply being brought near in this passage, but certainly this makes the point to being brought near. So let's look at it.

Ephesians 2, 11-22. And we'll take it a little bit at a time. So Ephesians 2, 11 and 12, therefore remember that formerly, this is the Greek pate, and if it helps you to remember that, that's great. If you think of liver pate and you say, I don't like it, think of the opposite. Somehow you're going to love liver pate. No, maybe not. That's also in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. So both Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, about the believers before they believed, and this passage, have two patés, formerly's.

So this one, formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, so that's earthly ethnicity, isn't it? Earthly ethnicity, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision. Yes? So isn't everybody of earthly ethnicity? Yes. So the Jews are too, right? The Jews are too. So here's what's different. In the past, there were Gentiles and Jews, and in both cases it was an ethnicity. Is ethnicity the issue for us in the Church, the Body of Christ? No. Ethnicity is not the issue. And that's different. So from among the Gentiles, there are saved and unsaved, right? And if they're saved, they're saved by faith all the way across. Among the Jews, there is saved and unsaved, right? And they are saved by faith.

For us in the body of Christ, that is from the day of Pentecost to the day of the rapture, Ethnicity is not the issue. Ethnicity is not the issue. Belief is. Belief is. And we're made into a separate body in which ethnicity is not the primary characteristic. And believe it or not, those distinctions, Gentiles, Israel, the Jews, and the Church, will be distinctions that will last on into eternity. Isn't that amazing? God will have an eternally harmonious purpose in having three distinct groups.

So we have here, and we say you are the uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision. And why did those terms get used among the Jews particularly? Why the circumcision issue? So you were part of God's plan so to speak? Yeah, so on the one hand we'd look at it, well that's kind of funny because it only involves the men, right? But on the other hand, if you look at it, the Jews considered circumcision above the rest of the law. Isn't that amazing? Great is circumcision. Were the Ten Commandments important to the Jews? Yes, they were. Were they the only things important to the Jews? No. The Sabbath, for example, very, very, very important. Was circumcision more important than the Sabbath? Yes. If you weren't circumcised, you didn't belong to Israel. Yeah, the bottom line is you weren't circumcised, you didn't belong to Israel, you were a a renegade Jew at best, right?

So you didn't belong. This is one reason why Paul, starting off with Timothy, says, Timothy, I want you to come with me, but we're going to have to circumcise you. Your Greek father didn't do it. Your mom and your grandmother didn't carry it out. We've got to circumcise you, or your ministry with the Jews will be zip. You will have nothing. So he says, we're going to circumcise you.

Not because Timothy needed it, because he needed to fulfill the law. Not because Timothy needed it, because somehow he had to do that to be righteous. But rather, that was something that was going to be absolutely essential for him to be accepted by the Jews. Yes? And it's ironic, because it wasn't a personal choice.

Yep, here's the Apostle Paul and Philippians. He lists seven qualifications, and I'll be careful about pointing too many fingers, getting too wild, because I've got a cup of coffee in my hands. But, so seven qualifications included in that list, four things that he had no responsibility for, including circumcision. Not too many people remember their circumcision on the 8th day. Or any other day, unless it was quite a bit later. That was Philippians, what? Philippians, I think it's chapter 3. As a matter of fact, we'll be making reference to it in today's message. Verse 5. Pardon? Verse 5. Sorry, you're on verse 5?

Yeah. So, yes. I wouldn't have known about the women. We just kind of come along. Yeah, and so this is one of the things that's strange. So in fact, the law of Moses had particular things that applied to the women. And so the women were not left out. But it was a daily prayer of Jewish men during the New Testament times. They thanked the Lord that they were created a man. Why? Because more laws applied to them than to the woman. Isn't that something? Yes? Isn't it because a woman falls underneath her husband, she is obedient to the law because of that? And if the woman didn't get married, then she was kind of an outcast.

Yeah, so really, if you look at it, a lot of it was a matter of how they interpreted the law, how they understood things. But not being married was potentially a problem. Of course, for a man, not having an heir was an issue. So things that we don't necessarily think of as priority were to them, this is panic time, for a woman not to bear a child. That is, to this day in Judaism, That's cause for, you know, I'm going to get divorced and marry a woman who can bear a child. Of course, it may be, biologically, it may be the man's fault, but nonetheless, that was considered, you know, that's bad.

But circumcision was above all, and why? There's one specific reason why circumcision was above all. Yeah? Probably because Abraham was told by God to do this. Okay, so first of all, yes, in terms of sequence, circumcision was brought about earlier than all the rest of the Law of Moses, so that's, you know, big, but it's not the only one.

Okay, you're circumcised on the eighth day. What happened if that day fell on the Sabbath? Do you observe the Sabbath or circumcision? Circumcision was above the Sabbath, if circumcision to be on the eighth day had to be on the Sabbath. So in Jewish logic circumcision is even greater than the Sabbath. Sabbath keeping is a life and death issue. But circumcision is even greater.

Right? Yes? So you're saying that the women fell under the men's laws authority, but like in Timothy's case, his mother and grandmother were believers because they taught him, so would they go under assuming that his grandfather was a Jew? Yes, so let's logically, because you bring up a very good question that fits this issue right here. Okay, so here's Timothy.

His mother and his grandmother are Jewish. His father is a Greek. Is he out of luck because his father is Greek or is he still considered possibly in the fold? Well, because of disposition, because he was taken, he was in the fold then. Okay, so let's think about for the Jews, for just the Jews, if you had a Jewish mother, you're qualified, but you still have to be circumcised and all those kinds of things. Probably not. Well, so he would be accepted having a Jewish mother, right? He would be accepted as long as he was circumcised, right?

And so the way the Jews, and this is generalizing because it can get complex, but the way the Jews generally observe things, a Jewish mother made you a Jew. A Jewish father determined your tribe. See the difference there? So are you Jewish or not? That depends on the mother. What tribe are you? That depends on the father. So there would be some question as to tribal identity because he had a Greek father. So how do you figure this one out?

But he would be accepted as a Jew because he had a Jewish mother as long as he was circumcised. So this is a primary identity and why the Apostle Paul, not just here but in other contexts, would talk about circumcision. Circumcision would be, even for those who are converted, something that the Jews of those times insisted upon. This is what the book of Galatians points to. Paul says, if you are so much as circumcised, introduction to the law, then you signed up for the whole thing.

You don't just take a legal nibble. You don't have mini-law. Mini as in M-I-N-I, right? You either sign up for the whole thing or not at all. So, here is the circumcision and uncircumcision, and it says, which is performed in the flesh, so this is in the body, right? By human hands and a stand pointed out. The typical way it was done was on the thay, right? for an infant, and the infant somehow is looked upon as, hey, he's in the fold, even though he has no recollection that it ever took place.

So then we have verse 12, remember that you are at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant's promise, having no hope in without God in the world. And death is defined as Separation. So the Gentiles were to the Jews? Separated. Separated and dead. You're dead, you know. If a Jewish child headed off in ways that were completely repulsive, you're dead to me. There are in fact some lessons. Anybody seen the movie Fiddler on the Roof? At one point in time, Tevye says to his daughter, you're dead to me.

And these words get referred to later on, the separate and excluded and strangers, these words get referred to later on as talking about how unbelievers are separated from and excluded and strangers. We give below Romans 9, 1-5, and I'll read it just in brief here, which is a very good strong parallel passage.

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. By the way, is there a guarantee that if you're a Christian you won't go through As long as you trust the Lord, you won't go through bad feelings. There is not.

Here's the Apostle Paul, and twice he talks about being disturbed or troubled in his spirit in Acts and in 1 Corinthians. So here what we see is, in verse 2, that he has great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed. Isn't this amazing? He would be willing to volunteer for hell if it would only be such as to save these Jews. Wow.

Separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption of sons, and the glory and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises. whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God bless forever, Amen. And how is the Christ different from just saying Christ? Specifically, Christos is the anointed one, the Christ is the Messiah, which is the Hebrew Anglicized Hebrew form for anointed one. From whom are the fathers, and from whom is the Messiah according to the flesh, who is over all, God bless forever, Amen.

Yes? Can you, for my benefit of the class maybe, but conscience, here it says, as my conscience testifies, but over on page two, it refers to the conscience as evil, evil conscience. What exactly do they, what is conscience? Okay, that's getting into a subject they're in fact dealing with in the Romans class. We probably won't have time to go into it. Just briefly. When we get there, let's talk about that. But that's a good question. Okay. Yeah, what is conscience? Okay.

So, we have on the flip side there, but now in Christ Jesus, so here's 2.13 that we referred to, in Christ Jesus, so our identification with Christ, our being in Christ is the means by which these things come about, right? And does it happen otherwise? No. It is in Christ, period, right? You who formerly have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. So think about this, imagine if you can this situation, the believers in Ephesus, and by the way this was written some years after the founding of the church, the believers in Ephesus, are they all Gentiles? There are some Jews.

Matter of fact, that's where Paul started, right? In the synagogue. As a matter of fact, in Ephesus, he had three months at the synagogue before things started getting rough. He only had three Sabbaths in Thessalonica and things started getting rough. Here he had three months. Much longer receptivity, by a number of weeks. And so, here you have Here's the Apostle Paul. Imagine how easily this is going to sell. You go into the synagogue and you start telling them, the Messiah is Jesus.

And he died and was buried and rose again. Have you started to lose them right there? Yep. They can't put that together. So, he died and was buried and rose again. And when he died, as we are going to see later on this month, he separated us from the law and took the law out of the way. Imagine trying to sell this to the Jews. Here is the Messiah who is going to die, who has died. and has been buried and has resurrected. And, oh boy, get this, try to sell this one. He took the law, the Messiah took the law out of the way. Can you imagine what a hard sell that is? The Messiah took the law out of the way.

And now, you know, these Gentiles, I mean, you go out to the Agora, and all the food that the Gentiles are selling there, how much of it can you eat? Probably nothing, right? Oh, by the way, the clothing, hey, they've got great clothing, and it's got a mixture of wool and some other flax, and how's that going to sell? You can't buy it, you know? There's all this, I've got to keep separate from these guys. Now you're saying all that goes by the wayside, the Messiah took the law out of the way. How's that going to sell?

Yeah. And the answer to that was the book of Hebrews. If you look at it in this chapter we're looking at, he has to sell that to the Jews, so to speak, but I don't mean sell in a superficial sense, but I mean get that across in such a way that they will actually look upon the Gentiles as their brethren. So this is like If I'm a Jew, for all my life, since before I remember anything, before I could read, I've been brought up, you stay away from these Gentiles, don't wear their clothing, don't eat with them, don't go in their houses, now all of a sudden you're supposed to sit down and have a fellowship meal together? This is shocking news. To look at that, they have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. Yes. I think it would be a hard thing to sell to the Jews because number one, they didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

He broke the Sabbath. Yes, and so one of the reasons why that's very clear and is clearly an issue was, here's the beginning of the book of Acts, where Peter, before Paul is even on the scene, Paul is at best an enemy, if he knows about everything that's going on, but he's at best an enemy.

Peter says to these Jews, repent. The challenge for him is not primarily believe, but repent. change your mind from unbelief to a place of belief. But I know that's a repenting for you guys, because you've already rejected Christ as the Messiah. We're here to tell you He is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He puts that right in the middle of Acts chapter 2 and he talks to the Jews again in chapter 3 and guess what he says? Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Paul writes it here, brought near by the blood of the Messiah. The Messiah and his death on the cross is what takes the law out of the way. To Jews that's just shaking their head. Stoning. Yeah, I mean, they can't comprehend it. Not only that, he's deity. What? What deity? Yeah. Here's the Messiah who took the law out of the way when he died on the cross. That's a big breath.

The law was more important to them. Yeah, the law is everything, and circumcision was everything, and I'm supposed to sit down and eat whatever with these guys who will wear whatever, right? And I'm supposed to sit down with a meal with these guys and call them my brothers? And imagine just an earth-shaking thought this was. Is it the truth? It's the absolute truth. But in terms of the Jewish culture, you can begin to comprehend what an exceedingly difficult thing this was.

It was a matter of them placing their faith in the facts, like the train and the tracks, placing their faith in the facts and not obeying the feelings. Because the feelings told them what? Their feelings may have been all over the place, but they may have been shuddering, they may have been, you know, I'm watching this guy bake it, and I'm sitting across the table. So there's this revulsion that's going on, but it's faith in the facts, not the feelings.

Right? Yeah. It would be just like if somebody came and said that the Bible and doctrine was no longer valid. They gave you a new book. Yeah, it's that revolutionary thought. Everything you've ever been brought up with, all the traditions, everything about who you are, and who God is, all that, just what? So you can imagine that. So here the Christ is the one who by his blood, there on the cross, these Gentiles have been brought near.

You mean they're not circumcised? No. You mean they don't stay away from the bacon? Nope. You mean they can come in with two or three different kinds of materials in their clothing and that's okay? Yep. So you start to see and get a sense of This is going to be a tough one. This is why in the book of Galatians, Paul has to stand up to Peter. Peter! And why? Because Peter is responding to the things he's been brought up with for decades.

All of a sudden, Christ the Messiah died, and one of his purposes was to take that law out of the way. Verse 14, for he himself is our peace who made both groups, that's Gentiles and Jews, both ethnic groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. What divided them? Verse 15, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity. I hate you and you hate me and then we're both happy. The enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Is there any question about what this means? Not really. It's getting down to, here's the big thing, here's the law, it's got all these individual ordinances, right?

So that in himself, that sounds like in Christ, right? In Christ, 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 enmity." So that's how he ends verse 16, that's how he starts verse 15. The enmity, the law, the thing that created the I hate you, you hate me, we're both happy, right? take that out of the way completely. Yeah. So in other words, God did away with the Jewish pride. Yeah. Everything, everything, you know, that, hey, I'm descended from Abraham. Yeah, well these guys are too. By faith.

Shocking thought. So as we look at this, this is an astounding, amazing, set of words the Apostle Paul, the Pharisee, has just written to this church at Ephesus. He's telling the Jews, the Messiah put the law out of the way so that you and those Gentile people are one. Imagine how shocking and astounding that was to them.

One more thing. To the pagan Greeks, as most of the Gentiles these times are, to the pagan Greeks, the idea of resurrection, physical resurrection, was just like, eh, eh, eh, not going there. So both of them had some really big things to swallow. to accept this.

So, Isaiah 57, 19, And he who came and preached peace to you who were far away, the Gentiles, and peace to those who were near, it is before Christ the Jews ethnically had a nearness, right, the Jews, for through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. So that verse has the Trinity in one verse, verse 18.

Through Him is who? What's that? Christ. So through Christ, we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. There's the Trinity right in one verse. By the way, the Trinity is mentioned, Father, Son, Holy Spirit together eight times in Ephesians. So, then we have, verse 19, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints.

So are these bacon-eating Jews? No, Gentiles. Bacon-eating Gentiles. who wear mixed fabrics and eat the wrong stuff and do whatever they want on any day they want for the week. Are these people now fellow citizens with these Jews who have been coming to the synagogue every Sabbath and getting up right in the morning and saying the right things and knocking off the work on the Sabbath Are they going to be okay now? They're of one household. Isn't that astounding?

Fellow citizens with the saints, by the way, Philippians, very commonly people look at Philippians 3.20, we have a heavenly citizenship. That's only one of the places where it talks about citizenship.

So we give all three references, Philippians 1.27, 320 was what most people think of, and then 4.1-3.

Philippians 1.27, it talks about, it says conduct yourselves, but it's not just behave yourself, it's politeuomai, we get our word politics from it, and it's from the idea that it's a citizenship behavior. Citizenship behavior, and then 4.1-3 is the book of life, The Book of Life was the list of living citizens in ancient times, right? So, in our Of God's Household, we've been talking about Of God's Household. What are some of the terms we've seen in Of God's Household? Adoption of Sons. What is Adoption of Sons? By the way, Adoption of Sons, does that apply to Gentiles and to Jews in the body of Christ? Do both Gentiles and Jews have the adoption of sons in the body of Christ?

No. They do? Yeah. He makes no distinction. If they're believers. As a believer in Christ, you have the adoption of sons, and that's in Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians. Then, so we've got of God's household, but is adoption of sons all? we've been talking about. What's the next thing we talked about? Children of God and sons of God. And we talked about last week, brethren. So all these are God's household kind of names. We're all in the family. A family in which there are no grandnieces, in which there are no grandchildren. All who are saved in the church, the body of Christ, are Christ's brethren, brothers.

Having been built, so is this still happening or is this already begun? Or maybe even completed? Having been built on what? 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.

Yes. And now he's attacking the temple and saying that there's a different one. I mean, this guy's just asking for somebody. Yeah, so think about it. Here's the Jews. The Jews, they're all about the temple. Even if you live in Ephesus, right? If you live in Ephesus, what do you think about the temple? Is going to the synagogue a substitute for going to the temple? Nope. And you think, that's where they got the sacrifices, and that's the place, it's the only place on earth. You got Jerusalem, and it's the holy city, that's the place, right? And you say, nope, there's another temple. And, let's ask this question, during the time when Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, was the temple in Jerusalem still under construction? Yes it was for another couple of years.

As a matter of fact, when they finished the temple, as far as it was going to get finished, when they finished the upgrades on the temple, they laid off 18,000 people, men. And so guess what the Jews did with that when they were all laid off? They had a riot, you know, there was this riot, they had 18,000 guys suddenly be out of work. So, they finished it up, they said, we're done, and that was about 63 AD, right? So this is written about two, maybe three years before that.

So the temple in Jerusalem was still under construction. Is this temple still under construction? Yes, the way he's written it, it is still under construction. One more thing, have you noticed the last two verses there are said very similarly. You see that? Let me read that once more.

Verse 21, In whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Verse 22, In whom you also are being built together in a dwelling of God in the Spirit. similarities there? Some of them are exactly identical. In whom, right? And a dwelling of God, is that a temple? A dwelling of God is a temple? Yeah, so these are parallel verses. It's called the Hebrew poetry pattern. 21 and 22 don't say exactly the same thing, but they rhyme. And in some cases have exactly the same words. Yes.

So in other words, this is the building that the author of Hebrews is writing about, correct? That Moses, what, built it? And how'd that go? Well, Hebrews writes about a tabernacle repeatedly. Yeah, but he also said building. He talks about the building. And Moses was built the building?

This was during the time in the wilderness with Moses and Aaron and so Hebrews continues to refer to it. The temple in Jerusalem was kind of the final stage of that same lineage of structure operating under the same set of rules. But here, so one of his ways of including the Jews is to write to them in a Hebrew poetry pattern. And since their temple was not complete, he also wrote about this temple, the church not being complete yet, still under construction. So he draws them in with this language. But all of this is stated to tell the Jews, the Gentiles have been brought near.

Yes. It just seems like their mindset would be a lot easier to get rid of this man than believe what he says. Yeah, and you can imagine, that's one of the things we'll be looking at here. In Thessalonica, three Sabbaths and then they were ready to kill this guy, right? So ready to kill the guy that they'll go to the next city, Berea, to the south and it's actually on a different highway to Berea to the south and to the west. So they'll chase him down to Berea and try to kill him there, so he has to run away in the night.

So yeah, they are really, really, really upset with this guy. And when you start to put yourself into the mindset of the Jews, wait, wait, you're telling us this guy here got crucified? I mean, that's horrible. That's the worst of the worst. That's the Messiah? It's just unthinkable, right? The Messiah is supposed to come back and rescue us from these filthy pig-eating Romans, and you tell us that He was crucified for us! And that was a swear word. So we can eat bacon. Yeah. We preach Christ and Christ... It's just, boy, that was a swear word. We preach Christ and Christ crucified. The Messiah crucified in the most horrible swear word kind of way.

And then this resurrection idea. How are we going to sell this to the Greeks? They don't believe in this resurrection thing. That's the toughest thing we ever deal with. But here he's trying to tell them. Here is Christ. He is crucified and resurrected. And by the way, he is full deity. These people are in shock.

So here is ten years after the Gospel has been introduced to Ephesus in round numbers, a decade later, he's writing to them in the book of Ephesians, and what he has to tell them, even though a lot have been saved for some years now, is just shocking news.

And when we put ourselves in the Jews' place, you can well understand So it was not only just hard to accept, but after a while it was just maddening. If they didn't embrace it, the reaction was extreme to the opposite. We're going to see that the three months that he was tolerated in the synagogue at Ephesus was exceptionally long. Usually it didn't get that long. You can say the three Sabbaths in Thessalonica. So it's, how long can I give the Jews this message in the synagogue before they've had it up to here? And I'm in trouble, right? Yeah? Wasn't it three days that Rome actually was talking to the Jews? Some believed and some didn't.

Yeah, we're going to get to the book of Acts at the very end, and what's interesting is he's talking to the Jews all the way along, right? Sometimes, at one point, they even get to talk to the Sanhedrin, as a guy who used to work under Caiaphas. By this time, Caiaphas is gone.

So this is a real reversal, and you know what he's going to tell them? Jesus is the Christ. And I thought it was amusing when I got to the music tax. And he listened to them and he says, well, we'll think about what you said. We'll talk to the people in Jerusalem and find out what you're building, what's really going on. They're quite a ways away. So they haven't heard all of the stuff that's been going on.

After three days, some believed and some didn't. Yeah, you get those who look at it and they believe it's the truth. But it's a hard to swallow truth from the Jewish viewpoint. Hard to swallow truth, but just the most shocking news that the Messiah died on the cross so to put the law out of the way and to make me the closest brother possible with that Gentile over there.

And that Gentile represents everything that I'm not supposed to be. But now he's my brother. Now we're fellow citizens with the saints. Now he's my brother. We both have the adoption of sons. The law is put out of the way. The law that I've been trained and raised to regard with the greatest esteem. And now it's completely out of the picture. Don't I get to keep some of it? There's a lot of Christendom that would like to, right? The scripture gives no leeway, no allowance for that. Yes.

Since God took the pride away from the Jewish people because of their system, we should be real careful that doesn't happen also to the church, which is already doing pride such a bad thing. you know, it creates action from God. Yeah, so, yeah, pride is a problem if it's the Jews, pride is a problem if it's the Gentiles, pride is a problem for us in the body of Christ. We're saved entirely by grace through faith, so that no one may boast, no one may have anything to be proud of. You want something to be proud of?

Sorry, I can't help you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the things you've revealed here. This is really a stunning passage. It is amazing for us to take a look at it and to see in it that you Lord, because you loved us, you've taken that law out of the way, that law which did indeed represent what is good and righteous and holy, but in fact, it's not attainable by us and by our efforts. And that's the issue. And because you love us, because you care for us, and by your grace, You've taken the law out of the way, and by faith we appropriate all the wonderful, amazing advantages of being in Christ. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.