815 - Les Feldick Bible Study - Lesson 3 Part 3 Book 68 - But Now - You are Made Nigh - Part 3

https://lesfeldickbiblestudy.com Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 3 * PART 3 * BOOK 68 BUT NOW - YOU ARE MADE NIGH – PART 3 Eph. 2:13; Eph. 4:20; Phil. 2:27 It is good to have everybody back after your coffee break. Again, we would like to welcome our television audience and thank you, again, for all your kind letters, your financial help, your prayers, and everything. I’ve said it over and over how we appreciate your letters. My goodness, what a compensation it is for the ministry. Before we go any further, I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. We’ve got two people that are so intrinsic to our ministry. They do all the transcribing for the closed captioning as well as for the books. The first one over here is Sharon Martin. She’s the gal that’s usually got the “red” hair. Everybody comments who’s the lady on the front row with the red hair? Well, that’s Sharon Martin. Jerry Pool is the second one. Where is he? Jerry’s back over there. Sharon does the closed captioning, and then Jerry and his wife Lorna put the little book together out of it. This is what made me aware of it. I’ll just share this with all of you in television. I just happened to be someplace where the program had the closed captioning. I just sat and that’s all I watched. And it was letter perfect. I was just flabbergasted. Most closed captioning, you know, makes some goofs here and there, but these two people have just done a fabulous job. I wanted to give them their due. Okay, now we’re on the same verse we’ve been on. I thought we’d do that in half of a program, and here we’re going into the third. But anyway, that’s the way we teach, and I trust that’s what the Lord has blessed. So, we’re going to come back to Ephesians chapter 2 once again. We’re on that “But Now” where everything had been Jew only, and the Gentile world was without Christ, without the covenants and without hope. “But Now” on this side of the revelation of the mysteries, verse 13 again. Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus ye (Gentiles, you and I) who sometimes (at one time) were far off (because God was dealing only with the covenant people) are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” This, of course, is another reference to the work of the cross, and His glorious resurrection. Now, let’s just carry on here in Ephesians chapter 2 on this side of the “But Now.” Ephesians 2:14a “For he (Christ) is our peace,…” That is that peace with God. Remember Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God.” God has no controversy with the believer. If suddenly the Lord should come this afternoon, I’ve said it over and over and over again, you’re not going to come before Him shaking in your boots because of some sin. That’s all been obliterated. You’ve been forgiven! All right, so we have peace with God. We don’t have to fear being brought into His presence. Ephesians 2:14 “For he (Christ) is our peace, who hath made both one, (Well, who are the both? The Jew and the Gentile, the only two groups of people that Scripture deals with, and He has brought them into the one body.) and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;” Now that, of course, was a reference to the Temple complex where there was a wall that Gentiles did not dare go beyond. But that’s been broken down. Now both Jew and Gentile have access. All right, verse 15. Ephesians 2:15 “Having abolished in his flesh (This is all in reference to the cross.) the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of the two one new man, so making peace;” Now, we always have to recognize that Israel was so involved with the Mosaic Law that that in itself kept them separated from the Gentile world. The Gentile had no concept of living according to the Law of Moses. But, that Law of Moses was such that--, now come back with me to Acts chapter 15. Boy, I thought for a minute I wasn’t going to find it, Acts 15 verse 8. Now, I guess I should go back to verse 7. This is Peter rehearsing his time at the house of Cornelius. And again, I always like to point out that Peter didn’t go to the house of Cornelius until after Saul’s conversion, so it was already opening the door, now, to the revelation of the mystery to the Gentiles. But the Jewish believers remember, from Jerusalem, were still undermining Paul’s Gentile congregations by demanding circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses. So, they had to set up this big meeting in Jerusalem, which is also covered in Galatians 2 in about 51 AD. That’s about what? Twenty years after Pentecost, twenty-two to be exact. All right, but now Peter is finally recognizing that Paul was right by claiming to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. #LesFeldick #BibleStudy #Bible