We come tonight to the last four verses of this particular chapter. As I was thinking about it again this week and considering what we would think about on those last four verses, I was really once again very much moved by this chapter. A very well respected friend of mine, a preacher of the Word of God, said to me very recently that this really was his favourite chapter. in the Bible. This was the one that inspired him most and helped him in his Christian life. So let's just read together, first of all, chapter 2 of Ephesians. And you who are the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of petition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh, for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builted together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. So reads God's precious Word. And so as we come to the end of this chapter, let's just briefly go through the chapter once again to remind ourselves as we come to these closing three or four verses of what has gone before, what Paul has been saying. Verses 1 to 7, he's concerned that we understand what we were before we were in Christ and then to consider what we are in Christ and you remember how in verses 1 to 3 we're described there as dead, as depraved, as deluded, as disobedient, as defiled, darkened and doomed. But you say we're alive and of course physically speaking of course we are alive, naturally speaking we are alive. But here Paul is concerned with our being spiritually dead before Christ moved in us and took us to be part of the family of God. Harsh words indeed in these opening verses, but a fact for each and every one of us before conversion were under the sway of the world, the flesh and the devil. Captive to the world's systems, slaves to man's thinking, dominated and energised by Satan himself, corrupted by the ability to sin of our own volition, not just when we are prompted by Satan himself, but we have that within us that makes it possible for us to sin of our own volition, corrupted to the ability to sin. It is our natural state to be controlled from without by the world, to be controlled from within by the flesh, and to be controlled from beyond by the devil himself. So these first three verses shows us just very clearly how God sees us. And we mustn't, of course, cling to the belief that, well, we're not so bad, really. For he's very concerned to make us understand, in verse three, that it applies to all. We all, he said. And at the end of the verse he says, even as others. We're capable, each and every one of us, of deprovement. and incapable of our own volition of improvement. But then we come to verse four, but God, but God. Having seen how God sees us, we're now going to, Paul is now going to show us how God is going to raise us from the dead and he's going to do it with resurrection power. Go back to chapter 1 and verse 19 and we find that the power he's speaking of here that raises us from spiritual death, spiritual deadness, it's the very same power that he used to raise Christ from the dead after Calvary. Amazing thought, isn't it? That that's the actual power that it took to save you and I, the very same power that it took to raise Christ from the dead. And he goes on to tell us that it's resurrection power. He goes on to tell us in verse six that because of that, God sees us as though we are already in heaven. Those, he says, who have been raised up together, made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In verse seven, he tells us the outcome of all that is that we shall have riches. Riches beyond our wildest imaginings. We're resurrected and showered with riches. showered with riches before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at his second coming, showered with riches at his return, for we shall see him as he is, and showered with riches down through the ages of eternity after his return. These lovely verses then take us from hell to heaven, from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, from despair to hope, from wrath to glory, from very death, spiritual death, to everlasting eternal life, resurrection life. Then he turns his attention to verse 8, in verse 8 to explain to us the very essence of salvation. And he tells us that it's all by grace, it's all of grace. The grace of God. He talks about that being the sole reason for our salvation. He gives us the source of grace. He gives us the source of our salvation. It is by grace. Nothing that we have done, nothing that we could do, could ever save us. It needed the grace of God to save us. He tells us the certainty of it. He says, by grace are you saved. That's the mighty thought there, isn't it? That it's an absolute, that we are saved. He tells us the object of salvation is you and I. The object of salvation are those who have lived in sin. He tells us then that the purpose of it, the purpose of it, that we might be those who live through faith, those who are saved by grace, through faith, not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. These are the wonderful thoughts that Paul brings to us there. But, he says in verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God has therefore ordained that we should walk in them. He tells us we're not saved by good works. But we're saved to engage in those good works. Why? He says, I want you to do those good works for this simple reason, that you are God's workmanship. And we thought how that word meant that we are, in effect, a work of art. We are God's masterpiece. And what a tremendous thought that is, isn't it? that though creation be a wonderful display of God's grace and mercy to a world, of his tremendous creative power through the Lord Jesus Christ, yet he says, he says, you're the masterpiece, you're the work of art, you're the ultimate expression of my workmanship. The expression is to take the people of verse two and to make them a new creation, invested with the exalted position of verse 6. This was God's work. This is why it took that power, the same power that it took to raise Christ from the dead. And the responsibility? To engage in good works, he says. Walk in them, he says. You're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, to walk in those good works. And then from 11 down to 18 he speaks about alienation, how far the gentile nations were from the nation of Israel and how far they were from Israel's gods. We thought how that even today we have racial barriers, we have narrow nationalisms, we have iron curtains, we have genocides. They've always existed, but as you read through the Old Testament particularly and on into the New Testament, you find that there has never been a more unrelenting and exclusive discrimination between two nations other than between the Jews and the Gentiles. Paul says that the Gentiles were Christless. He says the Gentiles were stateless, friendless, hopeless, godless. Their world was going nowhere and therefore they had no hope. But, verse 13 tells us, but now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Brought nigh in Christ Jesus. Verse 14 he tells us that brings you peace. Peace because the middle wall of partition has been broken down. You remember how we thought that that middle wall of partition was Paul thinking about the temple of the day and how that there was a wall dividing the court of the Gentiles from the inner court for the Jews, and how that it had notices on it saying that if you dared to go in, you were guilty of plotting, as it were, your own death. And so, he says, You were Christless, stateless, friendless, hopeless and godless, going nowhere. Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off. The peace has been brought to us. And in verse 15, he tells us that he fulfilled and therefore the Lord Jesus fulfilled and therefore abolished the law. And not only the law, but the ceremonial law, all those ceremonial things that have been added to God's law over the years. And in doing so he created a new humanity, a new race, that of Christians. Not a half-breed, not Jews and Christians becoming half and joining together and making a whole, but simply a completely new creation. And in verse 16 he says that God then reconciled the new humanity to himself. Jews and Gentiles, one in God, one in the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing absolute peace. And so we come to these last few verses of this particular chapter. And he dwells upon this group of people, this new creation. this third race, if you like, as I understand it, the early Christians referred to it. The death of Christ has created this new humanity, a third race. And for the Gentiles, of course, this was a seismic shift, a stupendous realignment of everything that they knew and experienced and believed. One commentator puts it this way. He says, upon believing, these outcasts, the Gentiles, moved to the very center of God's purpose. The interlopers became insiders. The aliens became heirs. The lower class became first class. You can imagine the tremendous change in their lives and their perspective of life. as Paul preached this gospel being available, the Lord Jesus Christ's death on Calvary being available to save Gentiles, to bring them into the family of God. Calvin puts it this way, he says, those who were formerly profane and unworthy have now become partners with the godly. They have now the rights of citizens along with Abraham, with all the holy patriarchs and prophets and kings. No, he says, better than that, with the angels themselves. These Gentiles probably could not imagine what they'd been brought into. It was beyond their imagining. And of course, some of the Jews were very anti this new gospel because of this particular reason, that now, now the middle wall of petition was broken down and Jews and Gentiles could both become part of the family of God. And Paul is struck forcibly, it seems, as you read these verses, with the grandeur of this third race, as we might call it, describing it in three graphic images. He talks of it as being a city, of being a family, of being a great building. These three things he brings before us in these last few verses of chapter two. So first of all, then, God's city. In verse 19 he says, now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. Hannah was saying as we came in, somebody asked her about her returning home and coming back, and she said how glad she was to come back, how nice it was to come back. And we've all felt that at times, haven't we? You go away on a holiday, or perhaps some have lived abroad for a period of time, and we love to come back home. We've all felt that strong desire at times to return home. Our Celtic neighbours, of course, never tire of telling the English how wonderful is their homeland. they're always telling us how wonderful Wales is, how wonderful Scotland is, how wonderful North of England and Northern Ireland is, and of course they are. And perhaps we English don't quite match that sort of enthusiasm for our homeland. But in some ways we all feel like that at times, I'm sure. But you know, in the time that Paul was writing, citizenship was a source of very great pride. It meant very much to people. It was a highly personal one, providing a sense of identity, a place where the laws were part of one's very being. Its inhabitants were one's lifelong friends. It was very important, their citizenship, of where they came from. They're now being told that they occupy a citizenship far greater than even that coveted by Roman citizenship, which of course the Romans held in very high esteem. Part they were of a supreme cosmopolitan community now, Jews and Gentiles. Believing Jews and Gentiles had become a common people, not common people, a common people. A common heritage they were going to have, a common history, a common allegiance. that superseded all other loyalties. They were being asked to join together in this new race, in this new family, and they were being asked to set all their other loyalties aside and to assign their love and their devotion to God. A common new destination was to be given to them. Paul writing to the Philippians, in verse 27 of chapter one. Chapter four, I think, isn't it? Did I get it right? No, I've failed. I've got the wrong place there. But he talks there to the Philippines about our citizenship being in heaven from whence we wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says you're now free from alienation. You're now reconciled to God. You're part of the body of Christ. In other words, believers at last belong. Any believer belongs to the city of God. he goes on to talk about God's family in verse 19 and the last bit he says and of the household of God what a lovely little phrase that is just on the end of that verse wonderful thing to be a part of the city of God as it were in that first part of that verse but he says even more wonderful is the fact of the believer's membership of the actual household of God, not just that city, but of the household of God. For that surely causes us to reflect upon it being a far more deeper intimacy than just being a member of a city. We're now a member of a household in that city. As God's family, we have the right to call him Abba Father. We've been adopted into the family of God. What a wonderful privilege that is. And because we're adopted into his family, he's put his own peculiar nature within us. We have the Holy Spirit living within us. I don't know whether anybody here has been adopted in their childhood, but it becomes obvious as children grow up who've been adopted, that they are not. They do not have exactly the same characteristics as the parents with whom they're living. Sure, you can adopt a child from another family. You can do everything within your power to make that child as special and as part of your family as any other, perhaps, of your natural children. But you can never place in that child your own genes. You cannot place in that child your own DNA. But God does that for us when he adopts us into his family. He adopts us in such a way that we have the ability through the power of the Holy Spirit to be Christ-like. Adopted then into the family of God. And if he is our father, then it follows that believers, you and I, are related to each other. We should call each other brother and sister. in recognition of that eternal truth. What a wonderful truth it is, isn't it? You might not want to be my brother or sister, but I'm sorry you are. And you will be through all eternity. You know, it's a wonderful relationship, isn't it, that God has called us into. And then he talks about God, his temple, God's temple in verses 20 down to 20. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Paul seems to be coming to a climax in this chapter and he's getting very very excited about this whole prospect again. You'll remember how in in chapter 1 Paul had that wonderful exultation of being a believer, being in Christ and down from verses 1 to verse 14 there's I think there's only one full stop in the whole thing. Paul couldn't stop going on about it and he still goes on about it to the end and he elaborates on it to verse 23 of that first chapter. Here he's doing the same thing, it seems. And having told us that we are part of God's city, we're part of God's household, he now says you're God's temple. For a thousand years, the Jerusalem temple had been the official focus of God's presence for his people. But the new race, this new creation, needed a new temple. And a static, grounded one would not be adequate. A building, as we know it, would not be adequate for God's dwelling place with his people. And Paul outlines three elements of this new temple in this last two or three verses. He talks about the foundation of it. He talks about the cornerstone of it. And he talks about the building blocks of this new temple. The foundation, he says, are the apostles and the prophets. He's speaking here about the New Testament teaching. He's trying to impress upon us that the foundation of this new temple where God wants to be dwelling is to be built upon his word. And Paul is here emphasizing the fact that we should be those who are built entirely upon the truth of the Word of God and tamper with it, he says, at your own peril. He talks about the cornerstone, even more important than the foundation. And the Jews would have understood the analogy perfectly. For the cornerstone, as far as they were concerned, determined the stability of the foundation and the character of the whole building. This cornerstone, when it was put in place, had all other stones adjusted to it. And that temple that stood in the days when Paul would have been living. The cornerstone there I understand was 29 feet in length. A huge stone, enormous stone, was the cornerstone of that temple. And it was put there and everything else was aligned to it. Everything was built around it and on it. And this is what the thought is here. Isaiah talks about it as being a tested stone. a stone of testing, to be used to determine the integrity of a building. And throughout the Old Testament, this word cornerstone, or one similar to it, is used to talk about the Messiah that, of course, the Jewish nation were waiting for. We could say a lot more about this cornerstone, but just let's carry this thought about it away with us. How glad should we be that our lives, our reconciliation to God, our peace with God and the peace of God are all built on the infinite rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to talk about the building blocks. Having talked about the foundation, the solid foundation on which this building is set, having talked about the cornerstone, which was the most important part of that building, he then talks about the building blocks. The building blocks, of course, are you and I. They're all believers. It's us. We Gentiles, who were excluded from the temple by a wall and by notices threatening death. Now, in Christ, we form the very wall of that temple that God is going to dwell within, that new temple. In 1 Peter 2, verse 4 and 5, Peter says this, Christ the cornerstone, surrounded by the apostles' teaching, giving it shape and stability. Then, one by one, living stones are set upon it, and they in turn radiate the symmetry of the chief cornerstone, forming an ever-growing temple. That's a bit of an expansion of the actual words in Peter. But you get the thought that this Lord Jesus Christ is our chief cornerstone, surrounded by the apostles' teaching to give it shape and stability. And then one by one, you and I built upon that foundation and lined up with that cornerstone. And we should then be radiating the symmetry of the chief cornerstone. And the purpose of this temple, verse 22 tells us, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirits. The purpose of this new temple is to be the place where God will dwell. And God dwells in each one of us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as God made his dwelling with the Israelites in the tabernacle and then subsequently in the temple, filling those places with his glory, so now by his Spirit, he makes the believer his chosen dwelling place. It's exciting, but it's sobering, isn't it, to think that God wants not to dwell in a building in our day and age, but he wants to dwell in you and in me. So we have a city. We belong. We have access to God. We have a family. We have brothers and sisters. We have a Father God. And we're a temple built on a sound foundation, the very Word of God. built around and aligned and directed by the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're called upon then to be living stones, reflecting something of God, something of the Lord Jesus Christ to those with whom we meet by the power of God living within us, the power of the Holy Spirit, God dwelling in each one of us. Amen. Thank you.