Ephesians Lesson 17 of 39 part 8

Continuing with our thought:
We have to be careful saying that, because since we are now under Grace that doesn't give us a license. Come back to Romans chapter 13 for a moment. Just because we step into this Grace of God does not mean that we're free to do as we please, for after all God will wink at our sin. And after all we're in the blood, and we're more than just forgiven. You see this kind of thinking agrees with this Word. And if we understand the Greek here, it doesn't mean that you can't borrow money to buy a home, or car, but rather it means to defraud no one. Don't take advantage of someone and cheat him. 

Romans 13:8-9
"Owe (or defraud) no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." (that is the Ten Commandments! And Paul goes on to list them.) For this, (since love is now the key) Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Who in the world can do that, only but one, a believer? The unsaved world can't. Even those in the school of the Holy Spirits training can't as yet abide in this Law. For they have to pass through it before they can ever abide under it. As the yoke or heavy burden of it will then have passed away and the New Yoke of the Lord will have been accepted as we've learned of Him. They can try, but they will fall flat on their face before too long, but the believer, receiver is empowered to do that. We are empowered to Love our neighbor. We have the capability now to Love the neighbor because that is the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments and the beatitudes. In the Yoke of Love and this Gospel which is self sacrificing and self sustaining at the same time. Because its God.

Always remember the Law as Israel practiced it was always under the terrific threat of punishment if they broke them. We don't have to worry about death if we break the law for stealing. Does that mean we go ahead and steal? No way. We are still under those moral codes that the Holy Spirit empowers us to keep, but the basis for it is first to Hear and then to Love. After all what put Christ on the cross? His Love for the human race! He Loved us so much that He died for us, and that Love is supposed to be promulgated through us as believers, receivers in the everyday world. So as we enter into this complete freedom of Grace, that doesn't mean that we can be or remain lawless, but it's that the Ten Commandments with the beatitudes are not hanging over us like a noose or like a yoke, which the Scriptures says was too heavy to bear.

Moving into note book 18 with verse 16a.

Ephesians 2:16a
"And that he might reconcile both unto God,..."
Now we suppose the average Church or Bible based people probably wonder, "well what's the enmity that Paul is talking about when he says "that He might reconcile both unto God?" We're to realize that from day one, as soon as God separated the Hebrew from the Gentile there was enmity between the races. Just as there was enmity between God and man-kind as a whole (this also covered the Hebrews not just the gentiles or nations). Now let us take you all the way back to the Book of Exodus, chapter 11. And here the nation of Israel is getting ready to move out of Egypt, out of their slavery, and here again this is really the beginning of miracles so far as Israel was concerned. Just look at what it says.

Exodus 11:7
"But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: (anything that belongs to the nation of Israel) that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel."
You see a lot of people don't understand this difference. Did that difference ever stop? No! It carried all the way through. Now come on up to chapter 19, and now the children of Israel are gathered around Mount Sinai. Moses is up on the mount and is conversing with God, and he's going to be coming down with Ten Commandments before long. But look at the conversation between God and Moses. Let's begin with verse 3.

Exodus 19:3-4
"And Moses went up (that is up into Mount Sinai) unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, 'Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel (notice He did not say Abraham or Isaac because these were earthy people); Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.'"
Right there anybody who knows anything at all about the Old Testament, what happened to the Egyptians at the Red sea? They were drowned. What happened to Israel? They came through unscathed on the other side. What did God do? He put a difference between them. I mean He separated them but good. He even separated them from they're former root, Abraham because he and Isaac were of a totally different stock, they were righteous or spiritual because they trusted God they took Him at His Word. They did not question or doubt Him one iota. But this group or assembly does repeatedly throughout its history even until this very day. They've received to themselves the curse of Deuteronomy, the Law, the Psalms and Prophets and therefore God has given them a spirit of slumber or blindness, a familiar spirit. Paul calls it a mystery in:

Romans 11:25

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

Now back to Exodus chapter 19 and verse 5:

Exodus 19:5

"'Now therefore, (because God has already shown how He can put a difference between Israel and the rest of the world, the cloud of fire by night and a shadowing cloud of darkness during the day) if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye (as a nation) shall be a peculiar treasure (something of tremendous value) unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:'"
Now, where does that put Israel? Just like it says. "above all people." What was that? Separating them. And of course Israel was very human, earthy and when they begin to realize that they were in an exalted position above all the other peoples of the earth, then they became bigoted. They got to the place that they just despised those uncircumcised Gentiles. Now we're not saying that God expected them to, but they did it because they were human. You know people still do that today. As soon as someone can get the upper hand over somebody, what do they usually do? They show how despicable they are. So the Hebrews came to that place where all through their history they are understanding that they were exalted in God's eyes, and these uncircumcised Gentiles meant nothing to them. So all of this had an effect on their whole outlook toward the non-Jewish world. This is what we see to-day in Islam, isn't it? Now reading on, and remember the whole idea of the Abrahamic Covenant, and being enlarged upon to Moses was what?