For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.
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… One more verse and we'll move on. Ephesians 2 verse 18 says, for through him, that is through Christ, through his cross, we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Make sure that when you don't know what to do, that you know where to go. Let's look at the second action Hezekiah takes. It's this, that you gotta know who to ask. You must know who to ask. By God's grace, he has not left us completely alone in life. But who do you go to when you don't know what to do? Well, Hezekiah gives us a great example. In verse 2 there in your Bible, Hezekiah sends his counselors to Isaiah the prophet. Now, by this time, Isaiah is an aging older prophet. In fact, he's been in the ministry for at least 38 years, if you start tracing all the years and all the dates. He's been in the ministry for at least 38 years, and he's proven himself a faithful messenger of the Lord. …
… denied. Jesus looked at me and said, I died for your sins. Come on in, enter into my gates. Come on. Praise him today. If you believe you got, I got access. I got access. Look at Ephesians chapter two, verse 18. For though, for through him, we both have access to the father by one spirit through him, through Jesus. We have access. We have access. And most of us are thinking like, I'm not good enough. I'm not put together. I got issues. I've got problems. I've got, I just, I, recently I was at this place, I was at a, I was at an establishment that is like a member's place. And it was one, like a hot summer day here in LA. And so I thought I wore like an appropriate shirt and, you know, shorts. I'd love to show off my legs. And so I was wearing short shorts, just, it's a whole issue. And I'm in the Cav knots category. And so I went to this place and I didn't realize how, you know, fancy it was. And so I showed up in sandals. I showed up at flip-flops. And the guy was like, hey, just a heads up here. We don't allow sandals. We'll let you in this one time, but you can't come back ever again in sandals. And I was like, you don't like my hush puppies? Like these claws were made for walking. And they're, they're, they're, we'll let you in this once, but you know, just don't you ever come back like that again. And most of us, …
… brought us near through the blood of Christ. He came and preached peace to you, for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. And we've been looking for a few weeks at these common experiences that we have. Through the spirit, we have mystical union with God. We talked about that. Through the blood of Christ, some of us who are religious and some of us who were not very religious. Some of us were very goody two-shoes, and some of us were just terribly licentious. And Paul says that the blood of Christ puts us all in the same spot, all in the same legal position. I won't digress and won't look at that at all. We've talked about that. Now, at the very end of the chapter, he gets back and just begins to heap up metaphors and images to just give us a sense of the glory of what the church is. He's already told us we're new humanity. Shocking thing. He says, now in Christ, in a sense, there is no Jew or Gentile. …
… because you know it so well, because I preached it so completely last week. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 18, talks about a great privilege that we've got if we approach God through Christ. And that verse reads this way. For through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. For through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. now remember what we said before that the context of this verse that talks to us about access and that's what I want to look at one more night so you get an understanding of what this great privilege is if you understand access you'll be able to on the one hand judge whether or not you really are a Christian when you consider what access is you'll have a good way of telling whether you're a Christian or not and if you are a Christian And by thinking of access, you'll realize how little you are dipping into a deep and wonderful well that God's given you and how little you're drawing on it. …
… verse in Ephesians 2, and we're going to seek to deliver tonight. Ephesians 2, verse 18. Let me read it. for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Now the reason I want to look at that, if you've been following along, which you may, you may not be, we've been going through the book of Ephesians, and we said that the book of Ephesians is actually, it kind of goes like this, in Ephesians 1, Paul prays, like you just prayed, that the greatness of God's power would be obvious to everyone. Then in chapter 2, he gives us, Paul gives us the two greatest evidences that God is powerfully present in the world. And those two great evidences are first in verses 1 to 10, which we looked at back in the fall, how God, when he comes into a life full of deadness and brokenness brings life and vitality. And then in verses 11 to 20, which is what we're looking at now, the second great evidence of God's powerful presence in the world is that he can take very diverse people and bring them into one community, into the church, and make people live together who otherwise could never live together. That the church is supposed to be an evidence of God's power. It's not just an aggregation. It's not just a group of people who come together to sing and and to listen to teaching. It's unusual. It's different. It's unique. Paul says, …
I'll read again from Ephesians 2, verses 11 to 18. We'll continue with the teaching we've been doing in it. Ephesians 2, verse 11 goes, Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcised, that done in the body by the hands of men, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the hostility, the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those of you who were near, for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. …
… and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. And let's end our reading of God's word right there. Now, we're going to enter into a new subject. We're going through the book of Ephesians, and we're looking at it verse by verse, and we're going to open up a new subject tonight. And we won't get very far in it because we need to be a little briefer than usual because we've got to meet God at his table over the bread and the cup. But to prepare ourselves for that, I'd like to at least begin to delve into a new area. what we've seen for the last two weeks is that one of the evidences of God's power in the world, one of the key evidences that God is powerful, is how in the church he can get people who ordinarily could not live together, could not get along, and in the church he makes them one. …
… to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access to the Father by one spirit. Let's end right there. Now, we want to go back to the basic subjects we introduced last week, and we want to move on elaborating on them, applying them for one more week a little bit more thoroughly. Last week we said that if you read the book of Ephesians, Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the last chapter ends with a mighty prayer for the readers. Paul is praying that the readers will have a grasp on the greatness of God's power. And therefore, Paul thinks there's nothing more healthy for us and nothing more important for us than to understand that the God that we worship is a God of power. And Paul says he wants us to know the surpassingly greatness, the surpassingly great power of God, the surpassing greatness of his power. Then if you understand that, then you can see all of chapter two as actually simply an elaboration of that prayer. In chapter two, which is 20 verses, Paul gives us first one evidence for God's power, and then in the last 10 verses, a second evidence of God's power. …
… nickels, and dimes. What would I do with it? Well, I don't know. What would you do with it? You better look at Ephesians 2, verses 11 to 20. Read it. Read it this week. Read what it says about the church. It's a bank account, and it's in your name. What have you been doing about it? Well, we're only getting started. Let's get started. Paul very humbly lays down a foundation principle and says, and I'll just summarize it here and then we'll unpack it. He says, if you understand the cross, any two people should be able to get along. and if you're not getting along two people who say they believe you're not thinking about the cross you don't understand it you're not taking it in see look he says verse 14 for he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two making peace, and in his one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death the hostility. Now, let me show you a very interesting case study and the principles that we're supposed to draw out of it. …