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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 2:12
I. Wherefore remember
A. Paul had been contrasting what they were before receiving the
gospel to what they are now.
1. Before they were dead in their trespasses and sins.
a. They walked according to the course of this
world.
b. Their life styles were being governed and
directed by Satan.
c. They were controlled by their fleshly desires.
d. They were destined for the wrath of God.
2. Now they are saved from the old life and the impending
wrath of God.
a. They were alive in Christ.
b. They were seated with Christ in the heavenly
places.
c. They had a glorious eternal future of
discovering the exceeding richness of the grace
and kindness of God.
d. God was working in their lives making them an
expression of Himself, as He prepared them for
the good works He had before ordained that they
should accomplish for Him.
B. Paul again turns to the past as he describes what they were
before receiving Christ.
1. Gentiles in the flesh.
a. By birth.
b. By practice as they lived after the flesh.
c. Living in the flesh, being slaves to the
desires of the flesh and of the mind.
2. Called Uncircumcision by those who were called the
Circumcision.
a. God had made a covenant with Abraham which is
recorded in Genesis 17.
b. In this covenant God promised to:
1. Multiply him exceedingly.
2. That he would be the father of many
nations.
3. He would make him exceeding fruitful.
4. Kings would come from him.
5. He would be a God to him and to his
seed.
6. That God would give to him and to his
seed the land of Canaan.
c. The sign of the covenant would be circumcision.
1. The cutting away of the flesh. This
had a much deeper significance than
just a physical rite.
2. It was to signify that they would be a
spiritual people not living after the
flesh, but after the Spirit.
3. It was to be symbolic of a work that
had been wrought in their hearts.
4. The true circumcision was of the heart
not the flesh. Ezekiel spoke of the
people being uncircumcised in their
hearts. When Stephen faced the Jewish
council he accused them of being
uncircumcised in their hearts.
3. The term uncircumcised was a term of derision, spoken
by the Jews concerning the Gentiles.
a. Samson's parents were upset because Samson
had chosen a daughter of the uncircumcised
Philistines.
b. David said concerning Goliath, "Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy
the armies of the living God?"
c. Paul gets in a little dig against the Jews when
he says here, "that which is called the
Circumcision in the flesh, made by hands." That
was not the true circumcision.
ROM 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither [is that]
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
ROM 2:29 But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is
that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose
praise [is] not of men, but of God.
4. In times past, you were without Christ.
a. Without the anointed One.
b. Without the Savior.
c. Think how dark your world was before Christ.
1. You were justifying or rationalizing
all your bitterness, and anger and
hatred, and it was eating you up.
2. You felt you had a right to get even,
to take revenge.
3. Some of you even thought that love and
forgiveness was a sign of weakness.
5. Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
a. The root word in Greek is polis which usually
referred to a city with walls.
b. It is also associated with the Greek word
polites.
c. We get our English words such as politics,
policies, and politan, such as metropolitan,
or cosmopolitan from these Greek words.
d. Israel was as a walled city, you were outside
the walls.
6. Strangers from the covenants of promise.
a. The Old Testament records many covenants that
God made with the nation of Israel whereby He
promised them blessings.
LEV 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do
them;
LEV 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield
her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
LEV 26:5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage
shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to
the full, and dwell in your land safely.
LEV 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and
none shall make [you] afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of
the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
LEV 26:7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you
by the sword.
LEV 26:8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you
shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall
before you by the sword.
LEV 26:9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and
multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
LEV 26:10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of
the new.
LEV 26:11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not
abhor you.
LEV 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall
be my people.
LEV 26:13 I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the
land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have
broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
7. Having no hope.
a. It is so hard to be around people who have lost
hope.
b. We have heard it said of some, "He is hopeless"
c. What a sinking feeling it brings when the
Doctor says "I'm sorry, there is no hope."
d. Hope is a close kin to despair.
8. Without God in the world.
a. This explains why they had no hope.
b. David said, "Why art thou cast down O my soul,
why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in
God for I shall yet praise Him who is the
health of my countenance and my God."
c. In Paul's benediction in the Roman epistle he
said,
ROM 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the
Holy Ghost.
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