Ephesians Lesson 17 of 39 part 2

As we stated this is the Gospel which we are expected to receive each time we do it in remembrance of Him. Found in Matthew 26: 17 through 27:53 and revealed in Psalm 50:5 where it says this:

Psalm 50:5

“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” and this ties in with what we shared back in Matthew 24 and verse 31. We'll see shortly how all this just fits like a jigsaw puzzle.

We looked at verse 12 quite in depth, that the lot of the Gentiles before the Age of Grace, was that they were without God in this world. They could not be partakers of the covenant promises of Israel, but now it's a whole new ballgame. God has now fulfilled to the last part of the Abrahamic Covenant through Abraham, through the nation of Israel, through the Messiah, through the Last Supper the LORD's table the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, by now the letters of Paul in particular. This Gospel has gone out to the whole world, and it's free for nothing. Every thing that needs to be done has already been done. So that's what the next verse talks about then when it says, "were without God in this world."

Ephesians 2:13
"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
We took you back to the night of the Passover in Exodus. The nation of Israel was instructed to apply the blood of the Passover lamb on the two side posts and the lentil of the door, and we as those Jews stood in their little huts around their kitchen tables, did they shake in their boots with fear? No. Because they knew they were safe with the blood on the door. But, what was the heart attitude behind the door with the blood applied that God based Him saving them? Their trusting! See it's always been by trust.

But it reaches all the way back to what God told the woman and Adam and from there reaches to us even now and that was a redeemer would come and through Him righteousness restored to man. The righteousness which they had in chapter 2 of Genesis in the same power that His word held in Genesis 1:1-3 where light came to impart life to an otherwise dead world. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning with Abel - let's see what it says.

Hebrews 11:4a
"By faith (Able all ready had a knowledge of the faithful one for he had conviction, a consciousnesses) Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous,.."
All the way up through history it's always been by faith or a trusting conviction. But we just can't say, "Oh I have faith" or "I love God" or "I love Jesus", NO, that doesn't amount to anything. But where is our faith placed? Now for that answer come back to Romans chapter 3. And remembering what Paul said here, in Ephesians 2:13b "That we've been made nigh by the blood of Christ." Also remember we used one of the absolutes in Scriptures, and what was it?

Hebrews 9:22b
"...and without shedding of blood is no remission."
Denominations can throw the blood out of their doctrine, and they've got nothing. They can take the blood out of their hymn books and again they have nothing to sing about. Because it is still an absolute that without the shed blood of Christ, there is no remission. There is no gate way through which we're to pass into His salvation, rest and receive heart peace, let alone Grace, Mercy, righteousness, sanctification, justification and holiness. Now let's turn to Romans chapter 3, and start at verse 23.

Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"  

Everybody is in that boat, Hebrew and Gentile, black and white, Oriental or western, it makes no difference. The whole human race carries the stigma of having fallen short of the glory of God. Now verse 24.