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There we go. Now you can see me. Well, good morning. I had John Gardner especially and his son Langston especially build this just for me. Everybody else is six foot. Well, howdy. It's great to be with you all this morning. It's always a pleasure to be able to share God's word with you and study it together.

And so I hope to do that this morning as Thomas is out this week and the next week, next couple weeks. 68 years ago, tomorrow actually, on a Sunday morning in 1956, news came back that would essentially shock the Christian world. If you're not familiar with the story of Jim Elliott, I encourage you to go out and get a copy of the book, Through the Gates of Splendor.

It's an incredible story, a biography of five missionaries who had set out to reach a remote tribe in the jungles of Ecuador. And this tribe, the name of this tribe, was the Auka Indians. And they were known as one of the most hostile. Tribes in all of the world.

In fact, all the previous attempts to make contact with this group of people, this group of Indians, had resulted in some of the most violent attacks. But these five men, these missionaries, were determined to make contact with them and to reach them and to bridge the cultural gap, if you will.

And so they began studying this people. They began studying all about them, trying to learn the language which no one really knew. But they devoted their lives to this, and they planned out this mission to go and reach the Aka Indians. And so they began making several trips over there.

These five men and their wives, their families, moved over there and lived over there. And they began flying a little plane over where the Indians lived in the jungle and began trying to communicate with them. They would drop little things from the plane, little gifts to them, trying to establish that, hey, we're friendly, we're a friendly group, we want to come and meet with you, we can be trusted.

And so they began doing this. And on January 8th, 1956, that was the day that these five men decided, hey, this is the day we're going to go make contact. With this group of Auka Indians. And so they left their wives, they left their children in a nearby village, waiting by the radio to hear how this interaction went.

And so they flew over there, they landed on the beach, they set up camp, and they waited. And they waited for the Indians to come out from this tribe and to meet with them. And sure enough, a woman came from the jungle and came out to meet with them.

And so these five men went to go meet with her. And as they were going to meet with her, to their surprise, all of the male warriors came out of the jungle with spears in hand. And they brutally killed all five of these men. A tragic day, really.

All the work, all the effort that they had put forth, and it ended in a moment. A shocking day. And as you can imagine, this was not the news that their families, their wives were waiting to hear about on the radio, just in a nearby village. But if you're familiar with the story, what's even more shocking than this is that less than three years later, Elizabeth Elliott.

Jim Elliott's wife, Rachel Saint, one of the sisters of one of the other men, were living in the jungles with this very group that had killed their husband and their brother, living with them, living amongst them, eating meals together. Their kids were playing with each other in the rivers.

They were living a life together, living at peace with each other, with the very ones that had been so hostile towards them. And when you hear a story like that, you have to ask: how in the world is that possible? What makes it possible for someone to live like that, be at peace with those who have been so hostile to them?

And again, I encourage you to get that story. I wasn't able to communicate it as well as the book does, I don't think, but it does bring that question: how is that possible? How can two groups who were hostile to each other, who had such a barrier in the relationship, come together and eventually be at peace with one another?

Well, that is exactly what the passage this morning is all about. Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. We'll be starting in verse 14. And as you turn there, let me give just a quick review of what Paul has been talking about in Ephesians, in chapter 2 specifically, up to this point.

You see, in the first 10 verses of chapter 2, Paul highlights the need to be united in Christ. It says that you were dead in your sins, right? You were completely separated from God. separated from the life of God because of your sin, because of my sin. And we were by nature children of wrath, and we needed to be reconciled to God.

We needed to be made at peace with God. And it says in verse 4 that God, who is rich in mercy, and because of his great love, he made us alive in Christ. He united us with Christ, and he gave us a new life in Christ by grace, through faith.

And so it says that we are a new creation in verse 10. He made us into this new creation in Christ, created for good works that God had prepared. And that was verses 1 through 10. And then in verses 11 through 22, which is really one long sentence in the Greek, one section, one unit of thought, he shifts from individual.

Individually, the individual need to be united with Christ, and he shifts to our collective need as a group of people, as Gentiles. We needed to be united with Christ. And so that's what this entire section that we're going to be looking at this morning is all about. And he commands them to do something.

Do you remember? It's been six months since we were in Ephesians together. Do you remember what the command was? It's the only command in the first three chapters of Ephesians. Does anybody remember? It's a test. You all failed. It's to remember. The one command, the only command in the first three chapters is to remember.

To remember. To remember what? To remember the obstacles and the barriers that kept you from God and from his people. And that's what he talks about in verses 11 and 12 and 13. It's all about the obstacles that kept the Gentiles from God and from his people. It says that they were Gentiles, and as such, they were hated by God's people.

They were despised by the Jews. It says they were separated from Christ. They were excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise, and ultimately without hope and without God in the world. These were the things that Paul reminded these Ephesian Gentile believers that before Christ, all of these things separated them from God, and they separated them from God's people.

And so he commands them to think about these things, to dwell on them, to call them to mind continually, to think deeply about them. Because when they did that, it would remind them and help them to understand the significance of what it means to be brought near to Christ, to be united to him.

And that's what it says in verse 13. It says, when they were united with Christ, everything changed for the Gentiles. It says, but now in Christ, you who were formerly far off, that's the Gentiles, have been brought near. You've been brought near. And it says, you've been brought near by the blood of Christ.

That's what affected this change. You've been brought near by the blood of Christ. And so this is where we will pick up this morning in verse 14. Verse 14 through 18. Paul takes us deeper into this truth by reminding us of what Christ's death on the cross, Christ's blood, has accomplished for us.

And he explains exactly how Christ's blood has brought us near. Both to God and to his people. Let me read these verses to you this morning so that we can wrap our minds around them. It says, For he himself, beginning in verse 14, for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and he broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, 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 he might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And it says, he came and preached peace to you who are far away, and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

Now, the passage before us this morning, there's a lot there, as you just heard, and maybe it sounds confusing to you. Maybe there's some things in there that sound confusing. But as we walk through it together this morning, I want to take it one step at a time.

And my prayer is that the message that God has for us and for you this morning will become clear. Now, originally, I set out to cover verses 14 through 18 this morning, but yesterday as I Was in my study looking at these things. I decided it was probably too much to cover in one sermon.

And so this morning we're only going to look at the first two verses, verses 14 and 15. We'll have to cover the rest of it another time, the next time that we are together. But to begin, I want to point out to you a summary statement that Paul gives at the beginning of verse 14, because I think it's going to help tie everything together.

Verse 14 says, For He Himself is our peace. He is our peace. And again, that is what this passage is all about. It's about peace. The word peace here is used actually four times in this passage. Perhaps you noted them as we were reading it. It's found in verse 14, again in verse 15, and then twice in verse 17.

You'll also notice several occurrences where the concepts related to peace and related to unity are used, such as the word reconciliation in verse 16. It talks about making the two into one. You have the terms one man, one body, one spirit. So there's this emphasis on unity and peace, all things related to peace.

And then you also have a couple of mentions of things that express the opposite of peace. You'll notice in verse 15, Paul. Mentions abolishing the enmity or the hostility. And then again in verse 16, where it says he put to death the enmity. And so you have this theme of peace running throughout all of these verses.

I hope you can see that. And it's about Jesus being our peace. It says he himself is our peace. He alone, the person of Jesus Christ, is our peace. He doesn't just offer peace. He doesn't just make peace for us. He doesn't just proclaim peace, although he does all of these things.

It says that he himself is our peace. That's what's being emphasized here. Therefore, you cannot know or experience true peace apart from Jesus Christ. Because true peace is found in a person. It's not found anywhere else. It's found in the person of Jesus Christ. He himself is our peace.

And this, of course, begs the question: what is true peace? What is peace? If we're going to understand this passage, we need to understand what Paul is talking about here. And so this past week, as I was studying this, and we were sitting around the dinner table, I decided, you know, I'm going to ask my kids what true peace is.

And so we As we were sitting there, I said, kids, how would you define peace? What is peace to you? And I thought they gave some pretty good answers. Perhaps they would be similar to how you would answer that question. One of them spoke up and said, Well, Dad, peace is calm.

It's calmness. It means to be calm or to be at peace. There's no chaos anymore. Everything's quiet and calm. Well, that's a pretty good answer. I can see that. That would be an answer of what peace is. Another one of my kids said, well, Dad, it's the absence of war.

That's what peace is. When the war stops, that's when peace happens. I was like, well, yeah, that's true. That is true. I think you could say both of those things would define peace. But I don't think that covers the full aspect of peace. And so I asked them, I said, can you really say that two groups are at peace with each other if they're still enemies, if they're still adversaries with one another?

I mean, I'm an Aggie, a lot of Aggies here. If the Aggies and the Longhorns, for example, right, they haven't been in the same conference for quite a while, so they haven't been at war with each other for a while. On the football field. But could you really say that they're at peace with each other?

And they thought for a moment, and they're like, well, no, I don't guess so. And I say, absolutely not. They are not at peace. I can tell you right now, if a true maroon-blooded Aggie ever had another opportunity to saw off some horns, the horns would be coming off.

They are not at peace. And now that they're in the same conference, you're going to see that, right? The next opportunity, they are going to be full-on war with each other. They're adversaries, they're rivals. So that's the absence of war or calmness. That's not true peace in its fullest sense.

And it's certainly not the peace that Paul is talking about here. It's not just calmness. It's not just a cease-fire, right? Because they're still enemies. There's something more to that. The root for this Greek word literally means to join together. To join together, it speaks of wholeness. And it carries with it the idea of uniting two parties in such a way that their relationship actually changes.

You see that? True peace makes broken relationships whole, and it turns bitter enemies into some of the most intimate of friends, family, even. That's what true peace is, and that's exactly what Jesus does for us. It says he himself is our peace, and this is the main thought that I want to unpack for us this morning.

I want you to understand how Jesus Christ is our peace, is your peace and my peace, so that you will experience true peace, a peace that can only be found in Christ alone. So, in what ways is Jesus Christ our peace? Well, there are two primary ways I think we can see from our text this morning.

First, Jesus is our peace because he unites God's people to each other. He unites God's people to each other. That's verses 14 and 15. And as I said earlier, we're going to stop there, but I'll go ahead and give you the second way, and that's found in verses 16 through 18.

And that is that Jesus is our peace because he unites God's people to God. So, he unites God's people to each other, and he unites God's people to God. So, let's look at this one together. This is where we'll be for the rest of our time together. Verse 14, it says, For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one.

Now, from our context, we know that Paul is referring to the two. Groups mentioned in the preceding verses, specifically the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews and the Gentiles, it says the uncircumcision and the circumcision, right? That's how they refer to each other. And specifically, though, he's referring to the Gentiles and the Jews who are in Christ.

He's not talking about all Jews and all Gentiles everywhere. That's not who he has brought together. It's the ones who are in Christ. And this should be blatantly obvious if you just turn on the news and look at what's going on over in the nation of Israel. There's anything but peace over there between the Jews and the rest of the world.

The Jews and the Gentiles. And so he's talking about the ones who have been united to Christ. Ethnic Jews who have come to Christ. Ethnic Gentiles who have come to Christ. And he has made both of those groups into one group. That's what Paul is saying here. Now, if you lived in the ancient world during this time, a statement like this would have been outrageously shocking to say.

This would have been a very difficult truth for the believers there at Ephesus to really embrace and to accept because for so long, the very thought or suggestion of a Jew and a Gentile Coming together in any way for any purpose was really an impossibility in their minds.

Because I'm sure you know this, but for centuries they hated each other. And we looked at that last time when we were looking at verses 11 through 12. They despised each other. And this hatred went back for generations, for generation after generation after generation. They had been adversaries or enemies of one another.

Listen to how one of the commentators describes this immense hatred. He says that the Jew had an immense contempt for the Gentiles. The Jews actually said that, this was their thinking of the Gentiles. He said that the Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.

That's how they would see the Gentiles. He goes on to say that the Jews thought it wasn't even lawful to render help to a Gentile mother in her hour of birth because that would simply bring another Gentile into the world. It's disturbing, isn't it? He goes on to say that their hatred was so intense that if a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, or if a Jewish girl married a Gentile boy, they held a funeral instead of a wedding.

Because such contact with the Gentile was equivalent to death. Such incredible hatred, and it was two-sided, right? The feelings were mutual. The Gentiles did not care for the Jews either. And so there's this incredible hatred, incredible hostility between these two groups of people. And yet, here Paul says that in Christ, they have been joined together into one group.

Now, notice how he did it. In order for there to be peace, in order for these two groups to be joined together, he had to do two things. First, he had to destroy that which kept them apart. Now, notice what it says in the last part of verse 14.

It says that he broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Now, this is an interesting phrase, probably one that you and I are not readily familiar with because we're so far removed from this time period that this was written.

But Paul, being a Jew, seems to be referencing a specific wall in the temple at Jerusalem, one that he and the Ephesians would have likely been very familiar with. Turn with me to Acts chapter 21. I'll show you this, maybe give you a little context here. Acts chapter 21.

21. It's at the end, really, of Paul's ministry. And he was making his way to Jerusalem, kind of his final trip. And in chapter 21, verse 17, we pick up, and it says, and I'll just, I'm going to read some of this to us, to you, so that just to give us a little context here.

Acts chapter 21, verse 17, it says, After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the following day, Paul went with us to James and all the elders that were present. And after he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

So again, Paul is finishing up, he's coming back to Jerusalem, and he's telling the elders there in the church at Jerusalem of all that God was doing among the Gentiles. And it says, when they heard it, they began glorifying God, and they said to him, You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they're all zealous for the law.

And they have been told about you that you are teaching the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or to walk according to the customs. What then is to be done? They will certainly. Hear that you have come. Therefore, do this that we tell you.

We have four men who are under a vow. Take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and all will know that there is nothing to the things which have been told about you, but that you yourself walk orderly, keeping the law.

So he came back, he tells them all these things that was happening among the Gentiles, and they kind of said, Hey, look, all the Jews here are freaking out a little bit because they're accusing you of abolishing the law, of setting aside the law, and telling the Gentiles that you don't have to follow all these things.

So come under the law, come cleanse yourself, so that they will know that this is not true. And so he does that, right? He does that. He does what they recommend. He took the men, and they purified themselves in verse 26. And it says, after they purified themselves, verse 26, they went into the temple, giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, right, until the sacrifice was offered for each of them.

So they came into the temple. And in verse 27, when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, probably from the area of Ephesus, I think, upon seeing them in the temple, Began to stir up the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, come to our aid.

This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the law and this place. And besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple, and he has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

That's interesting. Trophimus from Ephesus, they had seen him with Paul, and they accused him of bringing him into the temple. And in verse 30, it says, Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together and took hold of Paul, and they dragged him out of the temple.

And immediately the doors were shut. And while they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the Roman commanders, the Roman cohort, that all Jerusalem was in confusion. And at once he took some soldiers and centurions, and they ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

Okay, so what does this have to do with our text? Well, for starters, you've got Trophimus from Ephesus there with Paul. And as I said, as we read, he brought him into, or they accused him of bringing him into. To the temple. Let me show you a couple of pictures of the temple so you guys can see that.

This would be kind of a rendering of Herod's temple, the temple in Jerusalem at the time that Paul would have been writing. And let's see here. There we go. Beginning here, this kind of large structure, so you can become familiar with the temple. But this large structure is the holy place, right?

And inside there would have been the Holy of Holies. You remember the big thick curtain that separated the Holy of Holies, where only the priest, the high priest, could go in and make sacrifices. And so inside there, inside this large thing, you had the Holy of Holies. And as you came out of that curtain, you had the holy place.

And that was where you had the showbread and the lampstands and things like that. And only the priests could go in there. And then as you come out these doors into the courtyard, you had what was the court of the priest and the court of the men, or the court of Israel, where the men of Israel could go.

Only the men of Israel and the priests could go there. And then as you came out this door and you came down these steps, You came into this big open area, and this was the outer court. And that was where the women could go into the temple. This was the court of the women, and this is the only place they could go.

They could not go into any of these other partitions. And so they stayed in here. And as you came out of the court of the women and down these stairs, you have this wall. You can kind of see this wall all the way around. It was all the way around the temple.

And this wall had these pillars every so often. And this was a wall, a stone wall, that was set up to separate the Israelites, the Jews, from the Gentiles. It was to keep the Gentiles out from the temple. And so, outside of this wall, all out here was the court of the Gentiles.

So, if you were a Gentile, this wall is as far as you could go. All the temple worship, all the stuff was happening in here, and they merely could look in, you know, look up, really, up the steps, all these steps, to the platform. They could not enter into the temple.

And along this wall, there were these inscriptions in the stone. Let me read to you. They're all scattered across, you know, or spaced out across the wall. This is what the inscription read. It says, no stranger is to enter within the barricade or the balustrade, the barrier around the temple and the enclosure.

No stranger is to enter within. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his own death, which will certainly ensue. So in other words, if you were a Gentile and you crossed through that wall, you crossed over that dividing wall that separated them, it was the death penalty.

That was what was prescribed. And so that's what's going on here. They accused Paul of taking Trophimus, a Gentile, a pagan, and they accused him of taking him into the temple and defiling the temple. And so they went into an uproar and they sought to kill him. And ultimately, they didn't kill him here, but he did end up in prison and in Rome.

And this is where he wrote the letter to the Ephesians. So now let's go back to our text. A little excursion there, but hopefully that gives you some context to what Paul is saying here. He's saying that Jesus broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. And the word translated for barrier is the word for a fence or a partition.

And it means. That which separates or prevents two things from coming together. And it says that Jesus broke it down. He destroyed it. He destroyed the very thing that kept them from being at peace with one another. Now, of course, Jesus didn't physically tear down this wall. In fact, the wall that was there in the temple was still standing when Paul was writing this letter.

It wasn't actually destroyed until 70 AD, a handful of years later. So, what did Jesus actually break down? What did he tear down? He destroyed everything that the wall represented. And I think that's the point that Paul is making in our text this morning when it says, For he himself is our peace.

He made both groups into one, breaking down the barrier of the dividing wall. He broke down everything that it represented. So, what did it represent? And how did he destroy this wall? Notice what it says next in verse 15. It says that Jesus destroyed the barrier by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in the ordinances.

The law of commandments contained in the ordinances. What was that hostility? What created that hostility between these two groups? Paul says it was the law of commandments contained in the ordinances. And what's that referring to? It's referring to the law given under the Mosaic covenant. The same law that if you're doing a one-year Bible in a year reading plan, you're about to read this here in the next couple of weeks in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers.

Deuteronomy is where everybody seems to stall out if you're doing the one-year plan. But it's the law, the law given to the people of Israel. And these laws were specifically given to Israel by God to essentially define and regulate how they were to worship God, how they were to live with a holy God and be in relationship with him.

That's why God gave them these laws. And it essentially defined the entire religious system that the Jews had. All of the sacrifices, right? And you can read them again in Exodus and Leviticus. All the sacrifices, all the feasts, all the ceremonies, all of the offerings that they were to bring, the priesthood, and all the details and the specifications of the priesthood and the temple and the temple worship.

All of these things, all the ordinances. And God communicated them to them so that they could be in relationship with God. And in some ways, the law was given to Israel and it was intended to separate them from the other nations in some ways. It was intended to make them distinct from all of the other nations in the world, and they were to live differently because God had called them out of the world and called them to be his unique and special people.

And so these laws kind of set them apart and made them distinct. But the purpose of that distinction was so that they would become a voice of God to the nations, that they would set God before the nations and declare God to all of the nations around them.

And that was to be their purpose. But instead, the Jews distorted this and they turned their distinction, their unique distinction as God's people, into something that divided them from the rest of the world and cut the rest of the world off from God, the one true God. Their distinction through the laws and the ceremonies became a dividing wall that kept the nations, the Gentiles, away.

And so that's what Paul is saying here. And he's saying that Jesus abolished the enmity. He abolished the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. What does it mean to abolish? The word abolish means to render something useless. That's what the word means. Something inactive or out of operation, if you will.

To abolish means to cause something to cease, to put an end to, to do away with. That's what the word abolished means. And it says that this abolishing took place in his flesh. In his flesh. This is a reference to Jesus' physical death on the cross. And Paul has already mentioned this in verse 13.

When he says that they were brought near by what? By the blood of Christ, right? By the death of Christ. And then again, in verse 16, it says that we are reconciled to God through the cross. So this is what he's talking about in his flesh, in the death of Christ.

And so, in some way, when Paul says that he abolished the enmity in his flesh, when Christ died on the cross and his blood was shed, the very thing that kept the Jews and the Gentiles apart, the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, was rendered useless.

It was rendered inoperative. It was done away with. It was brought to an end. All of the feasts, all of the sacrifices, all of the offerings, all of the laws of cleanliness and purification, and all of these other distinctive outward commandments that were given for the separation. Of Israel were abolished.

They were no longer needed as a result of Christ's death. You see, before Christ came, those groups could not even eat with one another because of the restrictive foods and the washings and all these rules and regulations. They couldn't eat with each other. But now Christ died, it brought them together.

You have Acts chapter 10. That was what Peter and Cornelius was all about. You can eat anything, and you can eat with anyone. It was done away with. Before Christ came, they could not worship together, as we saw already in Acts chapter 21. Gentile couldn't come into the temple to worship.

And a Jew certainly wouldn't go into a pagan temple to worship. But now, after Christ has come and died in his flesh, all of that was abolished. The need for a temple was gone. The need for the sacrifices was gone. The need for the whole priestly line was gone.

All of it was abolished by the death of Christ. Because Christ's death, in his death, he fulfilled everything that the law required. He fulfilled all of the requirements of the law. He was the perfect sacrifice. And so you didn't have to sacrifice anymore the animals. He was the true priest, the priest.

One priest, the one mediator between God and man. You see, all of it had been set aside. All of those things were removed. They were abolished in his flesh. And so that's what Paul tells these Gentile believers, that Christ was their peace, and he did it by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances.

That's how he did it. He did it by removing the very thing that kept them apart. Now, I want to show you what he did next in verse 15. I want to show you that he created something new. He created something that would bring them together. He didn't just remove that which kept him apart.

He actually joined them together by creating something new. Look at what it says in the remainder of verse 15. It says, so that. This indicates cause or reason or purpose behind what he's doing. There's a reason he abolished the law of commandments, and it was so that in himself he might make the two into one new man.

Now, let me quickly point out a few things to you. First, notice the action that is taking place. The word translated make means to create, to create something. It speaks of a work of creation, a work of a creation, and this word is only used in the New Testament to reference God, the creative act of God.

So this is not a man-made action. This is a divine action, an act of creation. And next, notice who is doing the creating. The text says, so that he might make, that he might create. Who is he referring to? Well, he is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the one that is acting in this verse.

Now, I found this interesting because in the first ten verses of chapter 2, Paul uses the same word to create in verse 10, but Jesus isn't the one creating. It's God the Father who is creating in the first 10 verses. In the first 10 verses, it says that it is God who made us alive.

It is God who raised us up. God who seated us with Christ in the heavenly places, so that God might show us the surpassing riches of his kindness. It says that salvation was a gift of God and that we are God's workmanship created by God for good works that God prepared.

You see that in verses 1 through 10. But here, in our passage this morning, it changes from God doing the creating to Jesus doing the creating. In verse 13, it's Jesus who brought us near by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of Christ. And in verse 14, it's Jesus that is our peace.

It's Jesus who made both groups into one. It's Jesus who broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. And it's Jesus who abolished the enmity. And it's Jesus who is creating. You see that? It's Jesus who is making this new creation. And notice what is being created. It says, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man.

One new man. Now, this is a reference to the church. This is a reference to the body of Christ. Paul says that when Jesus died on the cross, he abolished the law so that he might create a new man, a new anthropos in the Greek, a new kind of humanity, is what he's saying.

It was a new group, a group that had never existed before. Something completely new, a new entity, a new creation. This wasn't Israel. This wasn't another Gentile nation that had been created. He didn't merge the two. He didn't take a little bit from the Jews and a little bit from the Gentiles and kind of create this new merged system.

It was something completely new, and it was the church. Jesus Christ created the church. And this new group was one group. You see that? One new man. One group of people. It says he made the two into one. And this unified group of people were all united together by one thing.

One common denominator that brought people into this new group. And it was that they were all in Christ. They were all in himself. That's what it says. In himself he made one new man. And so it was no longer Jews and Gentiles, circumcision and uncircumcision. It wasn't even Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.

It's just Christians. Just people from all different tribes and tongues and people groups and nations who have all been united together by one thing, and that is Christ in Christ alone, by the blood of Christ. And so that's what it means when it says in himself. He made in himself one new man.

That's the emphasis here. They have been brought together into the person of Christ. And lastly, look at what the result is. Look at the result of Christ's death when he tore down the barrier, he removed the barrier. He abolished the law and he created the church. Look at what was established.

It says he made the two into one man, thus establishing peace. True peace. When Jesus Christ created the church, he established a place where God's people could be at peace with each other. They could be united with Christ and united with each other. It's here in the church that this takes place.

Christ unites God's people with each other, and he made it possible because their relationship had fundamentally and permanently been changed forever. They couldn't, there's no longer enemies anymore, the Jews and the Gentiles here in this early church. As hostile as they had been for centuries, all of that was dissolved because they had been united with Christ.

And when they were united with Christ, these divisions, these dividing walls were abolished. They were eliminated. Listen, when you and I come to Christ, when a person comes to Christ, everything changes. Everything. No more dividing walls, no more barriers, no more enmity, no more hostility. Paul says it this way in Galatians 3.28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free man.

There's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. That's the church. That's what the church is to be, this one group of people. No more divisions. All the divisions are gone, and we are all one in Christ. We've all been redeemed by the same blood, by the same Savior.

We've all been brought near to Christ Himself, for He Himself is our peace. He's our peace. And so I ask you this morning: is Jesus Christ your peace? Have you been united with Christ? Have you been put at peace with God through the work of Christ? Or are you still dead in your sins?

Are you still cut off from God? Are you still an enemy of God because you're living for yourself? Or have you come to Christ in faith, accepting the work of Christ on the cross? Has Christ's blood brought you near? If you haven't, I invite you this morning, you can be.

You can be put at peace with God, and it's through Christ alone. He can be your peace. And I also ask you this morning: are you at peace with those sitting next to you, with other members in the church, with other believers? Or are there divisions that exist among you?

Have you been Built walls that Christ died to tear down? Or are you pursuing peace with one another? The obvious implication is that we ought to pursue peace with one another if we are Christians. If we are in Christ and we've all been united together by his blood, we ought to be at peace with one another.

Let me close with this in Colossians 3. You can turn there. Just a few pages over. Colossians chapter 3, parallel passage in many ways. Probably written around the same time that Paul wrote to the Ephesians. Colossians 3 gives us some practical application of this, this truth that we've been talking about.

How should we treat each other? Well, in verse 12 it says, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, we are to put on a heart of compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience. That's how we are to treat one another. We are to put on, it starts with us, putting on a heart of compassion, one that cares for one another, one that extends kindness and gentleness and humility and patience, bearing with one another, striving with one another.

That is what is to describe. Those of us who are in the church, Christians, we are to strive with one another, bear one another's burdens, forgiving each other, right? Sending the offenses away. Now, when you bring people together, it's inevitable. We are still prone to sin. We are still prone to be divises, to live for ourselves, to take offense, to build up barriers and walls in the relationships with other believers.

But as Christ has forgiven us, we are to forgive each other. We are to send, as Christ has sent our offenses against God away, we are to send the offenses of other believers away. That's what it says: just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. So the church of all people should be a loving people, a forgiving people, a patient people.

It says, beyond these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of peace or perfect bond of unity. Love for each other is what unites us together. Our love for Christ causes us to have a love for each other. And lastly, verse 15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Let the ruling principle of your heart and your life as it relates to other believers be that of peace. The peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are all called in one body, and be thankful. Friends, if there's anything that we take away from this morning, that God, that God is our peace, we should be at peace with one another and so put Christ's peace on display for the world to see.

And unfortunately, so much, so many in the church do the exact opposite. In fact, they do exactly what Israel did. And they create, the division in the church then creates a division. It cuts people off from God. It cuts those outside the church, and it cuts them off.

They can't see the peace of Christ because there's no peace in his body. So let me exhort you this morning, be at peace with one another. Pursue peace. Pursue the peace that Christ alone offers. For he himself is our peace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are thankful. We are thankful for the peace that you have brought to us.

We're thankful that we can be in relationship with God the Father because of the work that you have done on the cross. We thank you for the blood that you shed, that made it possible. Father, we thank you for the body of Christ. We thank you for the people in this room who are sitting next to us that you have redeemed.

God, help us to love the body of Christ like you love the body of Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.