Brought Near

All right, take your Bibles if you would and turn to John chapter 10. We are going to be in Ephesians. We'll get to Ephesians 2 in a minute. But we're going to start in John 10. And last week, Rob gave a great message from Colossians chapter 3.

Appreciated that word that he gave that I know blessed many of you. We've been studying Ephesians here, and so we're going to continue. And we're entering a section that the next three messages in Ephesians are almost like a little sub-series in a way, because they all deal with this idea of what it means for Jew and Gentile to become one new man. And I want to think about the implications of that, why Paul talks about that, and why he talks about it right after the central text about the gospel in Ephesians, Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. Because in many ways, he's sort of, it's both a macro and a micro version of Ephesians 2, 1 through 10.

It's a macro in the sense that it's about how Jew and Gentile collectively come together in the gospel. There's a micro part because it takes this thing that was unpacked about being alienated from Christ and now brought into proximity as an individual. And it sort of shows that this message in just a couple, about three verses, kind of gives. a picture of what 2, 1 through 10 is talking about. But uh to get there, I want us to start this morning.

In John chapter 10, in fact, if you're there and you're looking, you can go over to John 11, verse 57. It reads, Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, that is, Jesus was, he should let them know so that they might arrest him. Chapter 12, of course, gets into the triumphal entry, and then we get into, in John's Gospel, the Passion Week and the last week of Jesus' life on earth. John Starts accelerating in John 10, culminating at the end of John 11, with the Jews arriving at a point where they have had enough. And the Jewish leaders are arriving at a point where they have had enough.

And they are no longer going to tolerate this traveling rabbi among them. And they want to see him killed and destroyed. If you go back to chapter 10, verse 31, it says that the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Verse 39 of chapter 10 says, again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. Go back to verse 19 of chapter 10.

There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.

So what is it that started this ball rolling, so to speak, with such momentum?

Okay. that after he raises Lazarus from the dead, that's it.

Now raising Lazarus from the dead became sort of a tipping point, but there were teachings that Jesus brought, culminating in chapter 10, that really set them on fire. And I want you to see, beginning in verse 11, what that teaching was. In John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

So far, so good. And in that context, in Palestine, everybody knew the role of a shepherd. While the shepherds were not particularly class of people that were deemed with great affection, they were essential. They're not seen as evil people. The idea that you would be a good shepherd would be a good thing.

In that culture. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, does not own the sheep. Who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches and scatters them. The hearers are going to be wondering who does he think the wolves are. Yeah.

He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep. In verse 16.

Yeah. quite a controversial verse. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice.

So there will be one flock. And one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life. That I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up again. This charge I've received from my Father. This verse up here, verse 16. I have other sheep. The other sheep were not sheep that were somehow in the Americas at the time.

They were not. And it's important to note. It's important from an interpreter's standpoint that you understand who these other sheep were. These other sheep We're Gentiles. He is talking here to Jews.

He is speaking about Jewish leaders who are like wolves. He is coming as the good shepherd. He will lay down his life for them. He is identifying That Others will receive him. And his own will ultimately reject him, right?

He came to his own. The Bible says, and his own did not Receive him. John 1.11. John begins his gospel that way. These others are Gentiles, and you have to understand that as a Jew hears this.

That is absolutely otherworldly for them to consider. And it's primarily otherworldly because everything that starts with Abraham in the Old Testament, moves through the covenants with the expectation of the Messiah to come, is completely rooted in ethnocentricity. It is all geared around an ethnic identity. First and foremost. It's all about Jewishness.

And the idea that outside of that, Now would be other sheep who now would come in, and we would have one flock. Not one and two, but one flock with one shepherd. where there would be neither, as Paul will say, Jew nor Greek. And Greek was just a placeholder for Gentile, that that would be the case. was otherworldly.

For them. It is why Paul had such difficulty in ministry. It is why Jesus takes so seriously the rejection of them and they are saying no. He lets them know: you're saying no to a kingdom. Therefore, I will invite others into this kingdom.

And so the kingdom of God now becomes in the Gospels a wide tent, a one flock, a one new man, that Paul will say.

So, in many ways, Ephesians 2, 11 through 22 over the next few weeks is an exposition of this verse. It's Paul reflecting on this concept. baptizing it in a robust Doctrine of salvation that he's already talked about in 2:1 through 10, and saying, Here are the implications of what this means. For us, what it means for us.

So, with that in mind, I want you to turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2. Make sure you've got a Bible. If you need one, there's Bibles there in front of you, and you can just keep it if you don't own one. Ephesians 2, and we're going to just read our text for this morning, which is verse 11 through 13.

And remember, this is the first of three texts that we'll build. The next text we'll look at will be 14 through 18, and then we'll culminate in a couple weeks looking at 19 through 22. Therefore Verse 11, remember. that at one time You Gentiles in the flesh. Called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ. Alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers and strangers, the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought Mir by the blood of Christ.

Okay. So We want to think in two steps. Far off Brought near, it's not rocket science. This text literally just lays itself out right in front of us. What I want you to do is just pay attention to the first two words for a second in verse 11.

Therefore, So in light. of the idea Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. You are by nature objects of wrath. In light. of the fact that you were lost in transgressions and sins.

In light of the fact that you were lost in such a way that you walked around. You were, to use the Greek, you were peripatetic. You walked around in those sins, and that was your life. That was how you lived, in light of that, and in light of the fact that while you were in that state, Romans 5:8 was true, he commended his love toward you. He gave his gospel to you while you were there.

And you could read in verse 4, right? But God being rich in mercy, in that state, God invades you. And he saves you by grace through faith, and then he says, I've got great works for you to go, I want you to walk in them. Therefore, in light of that, he says, I want you. to remember something.

I want you to remember.

So now that means he's going to play a country song. That's what country songs do. They take us into memory. Yeah. Now memory is tricky.

Memory can be divine or it can be a demon. It depends.

So, some people say memory is a handmade of faith, and I like that. That's true. It can also be a henchman to destruction. It can be one or the other. It can move you because you can use memory to reflect upon the faithfulness of God, the glory of God, how God showed up in the past, and you can go, that gives me confidence for the future.

Or you can become nostalgic and crying over the old photo album, looking back and grumbling about how the good days are gone and you're wondering what's coming. And it can produce anxiety, so memory is tricky. He tells them, I want you to remember, and in the Greek he uses a present, active, imperative, which means you better do it. and you better continually do it. I want you to keep remembering.

Now, he wants them to remember as in memory being the handmaid of faith.

Now, to do that, he's going to essentially. In verse 11 and 12, do what he did. In a small form, he's going to do what he did in verses 1 through 3. But he's going to do it in a corporate sense. He's going to say, You are lost in transgressions and sins.

You are walking in them. You are by nature objects of wrath. Now, what did that mean, though, for you as gifts? Gentiles. What that means for you as non-Jews.

And so he wants to take them on a journey to sort of unpack the fabric of what it meant for them to be Gentiles. And then, in verse 13, is the but-God move, where he does what he did in 4 through 10.

Okay?

So. Let's kind of think about This is a little bit in this, all this kind of confusing language here in verse 11. Therefore, remember, what are you supposed to remember?

Well First he says that at one time you were Gentiles. in the flesh. What does that mean?

Well, it's explained in the next phrase called the uncircumcision.

So here comes our biology lesson. Right? This whole language about circumcision and uncircumcision is in some ways quite important. The word for uncircumcision there is a pejorative kind of term. If you were to literally translate it, it literally means the foreskins.

It's like that's what, if the Gentiles were a band, their band was named the Foreskins.

Okay?

Now that's kind of a, I mean, I don't know if you'd go see him or not. I'd say probably you should not. But anyway, that's the language. Terms of the Forskins. That's what it means, literally.

And he's saying, y'all know you guys were pejoratively viewed. You know that you were the foreskin. Acrobustia is the word. Acros means coming to the point. It has this idea that you were those who had foreskins.

And you say, what's the big deal? It was the sign that you were not a Jew. And therefore, not being ethnically a Jew, you lacked particular things. He goes on. You're called the uncircumcision, and who called you that?

Who were the kids on the playground that were making fun of you? It was those who are called The circumcision. Right? But then Paul adds a descriptor. which is made in the flesh by hands.

which is made in the flesh by hands. He uses that language. Made by hands, chiropoitas in Greek. He uses that. Because he's linking back even to some language of how that term is used before.

So I'll give an example of it. In Isaiah 2.18. In your Bibles, if you have an ESV, you'd read it this way. And the idols shall utterly pass away. But if you read it in its literal translation from the Greek Septuagint.

Okay, it would read this way. And they will conceal all things made by hand. And the reason is that the word idol that's used in Hebrew is translated in the Greek Septuagint through the word chiropoetas, which is the word Paul's employing here. It's this thing made by hand. It's this thing that's merely human.

And he's using this language for a reason. Later in Isaiah 10, 11, he'll refer to idols, and it gets translated in the Septuagint as the handmade thing. The handmade thing.

Sometimes it's about, well, it's always used as something that's merely human over against. the backdrop of something that's divine.

So it might be the temple made by hand. Tabernacle made by hands, but it's always over against something that's divine.

So, Paul here says, they call you this, but they... have a circumcision but Hold on. actually something that's Just made in the hands by flesh. He's labeling them while they're labeling those who are Gentiles. And then He picks up in verse 12 and revisits the idea of remember.

It's as though he states in verse 11 a context for the conflict. They think this way of you, but they don't really have a standing to think that way of you.

Now let's get back to what you need to remember. What do you need to remember? What do you need to remember? So, this is what we. Gentiles Need to remember.

Now it lands a little differently with us because we don't live in that first century context. You have probably never woken up in your life and thought, the hardest part of my life is I'm a Gentile. Drag.

So we we come to it a little bit differently. But the descriptors are part of a larger narrative at play.

Okay. Now in preparation for that, let me give you a few scriptures that show Kind of the bigger picture of this text, and we're going to walk into the remembrances, the point of remembrances that you need to have. Romans 2:28 through 29, playing off of this idea of circumcision. For no one is a Jew who's merely one outwardly, in the flesh. Physically, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly.

And circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God. Paul is reframing. the concept of circumcision. that was Given After the Abrahamic promise, As a sign that you would be part of that covenant promise.

And he is turning that, and he's saying now. What does it mean for you to be a part of the covenant people? The sign of that is no longer a sign in your body. The sign of that is something that has happened internally because of the gospel.

So now he is eliminating the ethnocentricity of the people of God, and he is reframing it to a spiritual dynamic.

Okay. Philippians 3, 2 through 3, look out for the dogs. And he's not talking about canines here. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Those who are going around and saying you got to be circumcised. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and the glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

So, who's the real circumcision? He's saying, Those of us who are true worshipers of God because of Christ Jesus. And finally, Colossians 2:11-13 is a very important text related to Ephesians 2:11 through 13. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. See that?

It's the flip. They are circumcised with a circumcision made with hands, not you. For you, it's spiritual. For you, it's ah kairopoetas. Without hands.

Okay. By putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you. We're also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

Now be careful here. This is not a text that's indicating that somehow the modern signification of circumcision is baptism. It's not saying that. It's using baptism as a connection point to say this is when your heart was changed. That is to say, in the early church, when was it that you said, I believe?

You came to the waters of baptism believing and trusting. This was the way you confessed publicly. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead, and you who were dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision in your flesh, you Gentiles, God made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses.

So, in the text we read, it's the same idea, right? You were far, you're brought near. You were these uncircumcised, four-skinned people, and now God has, through a circumcision that did not change your flesh. But changed your identity has brought you Yeah. in to become one of his people.

So he says, remember. Remember what? That you were.

So now we we have to go back. We're looking back now. And he wants them to identify five Remembrances. Five things he says I want you to remember. I want you to think about.

Here's the first one.

Well, before we get the first one, this encapsulates them, so I wanted you to see this as an introductory text. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants. The Jews, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever. Amen.

These are who the Jews are. You are not that.

So remember first that you have no Messiah. How do we see that? Look at it. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ. That's the first thing.

Christ means the anointed one. It was the Greek way here of identifying the expectation of Messiah. He is Christ Jesus. He is the anointed one who was expected, Jesus of Nazareth. But you.

We're without. a Messiah when you were a Gentile, he said.

So remember, you were outside of something here. You did not have a kind of future expectation that they had.

Now, Paul identifies this. I mean, when he goes around in his whole ministry model, what does he do first every place he goes? He goes into the synagogue. He models Jesus. Jesus comes.

To the Jews, offers his kingdom. They reject him, and he turns. Right? He opens the gate wider. Paul mirrors Christ.

And Paul goes and he goes to each city, and where does he teach first? He goes into the synagogue. And he speaks of Christ in the synagogue. He offers to the Jew. Invariably, what happens?

They reject him and he moves on. He kicks open the door. And in that way, he is modeling in his ministry a kind of larger narrative of Scripture. That is, that here it comes, Messiah for the Jews, but They reject him, they kill him. They marginalize, they push him away.

They want nothing to do with what he brings because they're immersed in an ethnocentric physical kingdom and that's what they're looking for. And he comes bringing something different. Look at your text. Separated from Christ. Alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, and I'm not a real fan of that translation, Commonwealth.

At this time, Israel didn't have a commonwealth. There wasn't really this sort of nation there. Ethnocentric group of people largely that are under Roman rule. A better translation in the context of this particular term would be to say citizen, and some versions say that. But the idea is you're an actual, you weren't an attached Part.

Here of the people of God. You were, by definition, in that way. Far off. You were alienated. It's a perfect passive.

You were this, and the ongoing effects of that still remain.

So you're alienated. You're far off, you're without a Messiah, you have no citizenship. All the privileges that would be associated with being the people of God are not yours. He'll talk in a moment about the covenants, but you don't have this law and the blessings and this whole prophetic language where God laments their prostituting themselves and walking away. He does that.

Of his people because he feels a fidelity and senses, and the text gives us a sense of fidelity that he has to his people, the protection and watch care that he had over his people, even in the context of exile. He says, You're alienated from the citizenship of Israel, of being part of my chosen people. That's what you were. You were not part of that, you did not have a Messiah. Probably the most central of these is right in the middle.

You did not have the covenant promises, he says, and were strangers, and strangers, aliens, exiles, xenos. If you ever heard xenophobia is fear of strangers. Xenos to the covenants So we have to think about this for a second. I'm gonna put this up here. Um when he says this He's loading A theological understanding of what they were absent from.

So we just take, let's just kind of real fast because of time. Yeah. Just just mention these. Huh. In Genesis 12, God comes to Abraham and says, I'm going to make of you a great nation.

Your people will be blessed, and they will be a blessing to all people, and people will be blessed in turn with how they relate to your people, right? That's Genesis 12:1 through 3 in the Hurlbut Revised Paraphrased Version.

Now It moves forward. And in Genesis 15, verses 6 through 21, God makes a covenant. And he makes that covenant with his people, and he does it monolithically. He puts Abraham in a deep sleep. He walks through pieces in a traditional old blood covenant, and he separates the parts, and he walks through, and he recites the terms of the covenant, communicating to Abraham that he will be faithful to his progeny.

He will be faithful to those who are descendants of him. Then having uh organized having gathered, having secured a people for himself. He wants to relate to them as a father to his children. The children of Israel Right?

Now to do that He has to have standards. He has to have values. He has to have structures. He has to have commandments and sayings that he lays down.

So in Exodus 34. You have the giving of the law and a covenant that he establishes, typified but not necessarily completely enveloped in the moral commands of the of the Ten Commandments or the Ten Sayings. But typified in that morality, but including 613 commands that range from civil to ceremonial and religious, sacrificial, and moral laws. And he sets those down, and he has now this kind of covenant relationship with them that goes back and forth. If you obey these things, you will be blessed as my children and as my people.

And if you disobey, you'll be cursed. And that lays out in Deuteronomy, which is essentially a model. And you can compare it to other ancient Near Eastern treaties, but it's basically an end covenant relationship.

So it's basically a suzerain vassal treaty that's in its organization with summaries of things and with stipulations and with cursings and blessings and the like. And he gives them that as a law. govern blessing as his people. They cry out. As history goes on and they would like a representative ruler that they can see in the flesh, the theocratic idea of God being their king is insufficient for them.

And so he gives them Saul, then he gives them David, a man after God's own heart, which is a great blessing to the people. David longs to build a place for the Lord to dwell among his people, right? To build a temple. God says, Nope, I'm going to let your son do that, but I'm going to bless you in a greater way. I am going to let your kingdom go on in perpetuity.

And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, he gives them a covenant called the Davidic covenant, which is a covenant that you'll have a ruler. And that ruler will reign successively through different iterations, but ultimately, one will come who is a son of David, related to David, who will rule. Forever. Right? Forever.

And then He finally gives a covenant in Jeremiah 31. There is a new promise that's coming. It's a little cryptic. And it's a little cryptic for a reason back in that time because what happens is the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the Davidic covenant end up finding their full expression in the new covenant, as the new covenant. Is synthesizing these, in one sense, but also is born, as it were, and brought to bear on the lives of people by Christ Himself.

What does He say? When he's with his disciples and he institutes the Eucharist, this is the what in my blood. This is the new. Covenant in my blood. When he says that, he's hearkening back to Jeremiah 31, where in Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 34, He gives a new covenant and says that all those who enter into this will now know me.

I'll write my law. on their hearts. He says in Ezekiel 36 about the new covenant that he'll take from them a heart of stone, he'll give them a heart of flesh. He says in Jeremiah 33, he links the new covenant and the Davidic covenant together. That this new covenant will also be tied to the idea that there'll be a new ruler who will lead them in righteousness.

And then when he is born in Luke 1, 32 and 33, the announcement to Mary says that this child will take the throne of his father David. Acts 2, 29 through 34. Peter preaches a sermon, and Jesus rises from the dead, and he says, Now he has taken the throne of his father David, seated at the right hand of God, and he is exalted and reigning today. This new covenant brings together the people of God. Promised in the Abrahamic covenant.

The law of God brought to bear in your heart. Circumcision of the heart that has transformed you through the power of the Spirit. It brings to bear the Davidic covenant, the rulership. Of God in Christ, who is on the Davidic throne, all in the new covenant.

Now, I tell you that whole story. Because what they need to understand is you were outside of that whole story. None of that had Jack Diddley squat to do with you. Nothing.

So, the wonder of being God's people, the greatness of living under God's law and its blessings and benefits, having a ruler, you had none of it. And he wants them to sit with that for a minute. He wants them to keep remembering that that's who they were. No Messiah, no citizenship, no covenant promises, no hope. No hope.

Yet nothing. Having no hope, it's a continuous idea, but it's connected to this particle beforehand, right? It's actually connected to a particle earlier that's, but now the idea is you got to look back and go back in time. To where you were in your past tense, perpetual existence. This is what the Greek is saying: the kind of person having no hope.

That's what you lived in. You lived spinning your wheels. Again and again and again and again and again and again, and you groped and you tried and you worked and you were moral and you did everything you possibly could and you cobbled it all together and you figured you were creating your own little religious enterprise. Maybe you were what is common today, by the way, an omnist. I don't know if you've heard of an omnist.

It's the idea, omni is everything. It's the idea that you take a little bit from this worldview and a little bit from this one, a little bit from this religious situation, a little bit from this religious tradition and this one, and you cobble it all together and you go, this is what I like. And so you get your religious gumbo basically, and you put your religious gumbo, oh, that's a good gumbo to me. And you eat it. You feed on it, and here's the challenge.

Your religious gumbo doesn't look like anybody else's religious gumbo, because everybody else puts a little of this and a little of that, and you put a little of that and a little of that, and everybody's looks different. And so you micro have your own little religion, the religion of you. You follow and you pursue that. And then you actually do violence to all the religious systems you borrow from because you take most of those things out of context anyway. And you pull them out from their systems as though they were actually talking about the same thing and they ain't talking about the same thing at all.

And so you are disrespectful to those systems, and you're self-idolatrous with your own system, and you're creating your own path in the name of self-expression, and you're spinning your wheels. And you're hopeless. Because your enterprise will crumble a lot faster than a Tower of Babel. You are having no hope, the text says. And you are.

Atheos. We get the word atheist. You're without God. without God. Um They had plenty of gods.

Gentiles had lots of gods. The idea here is you're without the true God. You're without Yahweh. You're without the one who governs all. Yeah things.

You have no relationship. With God. And then it says this little phrase, in the world, and I think that's interesting to me. In a chaos. In a cosmos that is chaos.

In a realm where there's lots of other competing views. And a little double entendre, not just world in that way, but world in another way. In a place where everything around you in the natural world screams out that there's a designer. You're acting like there's none. You're acting like there isn't one who rules all that you bow before.

No relationship, right?

So no messiah. No citizenship, no covenant promises, no hope, no relationship with God. That's what. Were. You're sunk.

You're sunk, you're sunk. You're sunk, you're sunk. And so this is a depressing country song. You get to the end of it. And you're supposed to go, is that who I was?

And the answer for you in this room is yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. You had nothing. in that regard.

And then you read verse 13. But now. But now. In Christ Jesus. You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So let's think about this for just a moment. But now And we can do it this way. Having been brought near. Right? Having been brought near.

You've been brought near. The idea is that God reached out. And he pulled you. To himself, and how did he do that? And you get two.

Referent points. The first one is in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus... You have been brought. Near.

Let me show you a text of Scripture. that I think gives a beaut in fact, I think it touches all five. of the points of alienation. that are mentioned, Showing how Christ brought us near. There's a great resonance that goes on between this text and Romans 15.

For I tell you that Christ Well, you were without Christ. Right? But things are different now. that Christ became a servant to the circumcised. To the Jews, to show God's truthfulness.

He comes, and what's he got? What's he bearing with him? In order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. He's come saying, I'm the one to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant.

Now, Paul said that in Galatians 3. I'm the one to bring a new law, fulfill the law. He said that in the Sermon on the Mount, and Paul says it in Galatians 3 as well. I'm the the one who's coming. to fulfill the Davidic promise.

Luke 1 starts off that way. I already mentioned it. In order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, I come to bring them all. Yeah. New covenant in my blood.

And in order That the Gentiles, here you are, Jews. He comes to Jews, bearing witness of the truth of the covenant promises, but also in order. That the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles. with his people.

Oh, wait a minute. Rejoice, O Gentiles. with his people, you get to become citizens. You were without Christ, but now the Gentiles have Christ. You were.

Not a citizen.

Now you come along and you're rejoicing with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all of you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.

Now you're just one big group extolling him. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse. The root of Jesse will come. Davidic Covenant. Davidic Covenant, see that?

The root of Jesse will come. Even he who arises To the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope. You have hope now. And may the God of hope you have a God Fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, this God you were, atheos, now you have God dwelling within you, power of the Spirit, you may abound in hope. all of a sudden being without Christ.

Changed. You're with Christ. All of a sudden. Being not a citizen changed. You're part of the people of God.

Now being without the covenant promises, now the one who comes in Jewish flesh extends those covenant promises.

So that you can become his people, one flock under one shepherd, to quote John. And he comes bringing hope, and now you have hope, and now we're without God, but now you not only have God, but God is indwelling you through the power of the Spirit. Everything that is the source, all five things you're supposed to remember, are upended here in Romans. Chapter 15. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1.20, all the promises of God find their yes in him, in Christ.

It all presses down. Right? So It's in Christ. In Christ Jesus, but also. That comes very individual.

very uniquely applied to you. As a person. In or by The blood of Christ. It's actually the preposition in, but by the blood of Christ. Let me show you a text about this.

That's why the blood of Christ is so important. Hebrews 10, 19 through 22. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God. What should we do? See it?

It's the same language. Let us draw near. You've been brought near. And now he gives this kind of subjunctive verb in the Greek. This is what you should do, you should lean in.

Draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

So you have in the words of verse thirteen, In Christ Jesus, you who once were far off in those five ways have been brought near. By means of. In, through, The blood of Christ. He in his blood has transferred you from a kingdom of darkness to a kingdom of light and through that has opened, as this says, a new and living way. A new and living way.

You used to be walled off with the curtain, no longer. You're invited in. And he says, Now, what should you do? You should lean in.

So here's what you do. If you are brought near, living in practical nearness looks like celebrating the new covenant. That's the first thing. It looks like celebrating the fact that the gospel speaks over your life.

So if you sin this week, if you did not sin this week, raise your hand.

Okay. Good. Thankful.

Okay, good. Nobody put their hands up. Because that would have been your first, and it was a trick question. Yeah. Right.

If you've sinned this week. Which we have. You run to the reality That God in Christ has forgiven you past, present, and future. You confess your sin because he's your father and you long to live in sweet fellowship with him. And he says to you, The blood's always been available.

Yeah. Still speaking. Right? Because you're brought near.

So you lean in. New covenant. Second thing you do, let us draw near, but you've been brought near, so what do you do? How do you practically live in that? You stay.

Close. A lot of language in the Bible about this. You keep in step with the Spirit.

Some of the language, but you're going to walk close with the Lord and you are going to stay close to Him.

Now, how do you do that third thing? You're just constantly communicating with Him. You're just always talking with him. It's that in the garden kind of a thing, right? He walks with me, talks to me, tells me I'm his own.

Like you you you this sense in which I'm constantly in communication with him, leaning in as I begin my day. Leaning in as I drift off to sleep, leaning in as life has its challenges, leaning in, reminding myself in my failure that the new covenant washes over me and I never outrun it. And I stay close by Him. Let us draw near. I wanted to close this message with a hymn that I wanted to read for you, and I couldn't decide between two, so I decided, since I'm the one who's preaching, I get to do both.

Fanny Crosby. Wrote this hymn. Jesus, keep me near the cross. There a precious fountain Just keeps flowing, is the idea. Free to all.

A healing stream flows from Calvary's Mountain. The Chorus, I won't read it each verse, but the Chorus goes like this: In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Till I die. Cross into glory.

Near the cross, a trembling soul. You ever felt like that? Love and mercy found me there. The bright and morning star sheds its beams around me near the cross. O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me.

I love that. What I have to do in my life, I'm telling you, as a discipline, a practical discipline, is I have to, in my sin, walk back and say, Give me another vision of the Lamb slain for me. I gotta come back. To the cross again. I have to remind myself of the new covenant.

I've got to do it when people sin against me because I've got to remind myself that I don't get to hold bitterness against them because Jesus isn't holding bitterness against them. I've got to remind myself of that again and again and again. Bring its scenes before me. She said, Let me see it fresh. Help me walk from day to day with its shadows over me.

If I get outside the shadow of the cross, Fanny says, you're sunk. Stay with the cross before you. And then the final verse. Near the cross, I'll watch and wait, hoping, trusting, ever. till I reached the golden strand just beyond a river.

The other one is a hymn that uh I just personally find As beautiful as any hymn I know of, and it has a personal piece for me. I close with this. When I was young and just cutting my teeth, so to speak, in ministry, it was, and I've shared with you before, I was at two summers at a rescue mission in West Virginia, Hillbilly Rescue Mission. And one of my duties was to lead chapel in the evening. And I would get up and it'd be okay if I just had to speak or had to introduce another speaker.

But one of the things I had to do is I had to lead people singing hymns.

Now I sing in the shower. And in my car. And that's, and I sing here with y'all, but the issue for me is: if I'm, Joe has a great voice, he let us this morning. If I'm next to Joe, I mean, I'm going, man. Because Joe keeps me on key.

I can sing if I hear Joe and I'm on it. But if I'm by myself. I mean, whew, we got keys coming that you don't want to hear. All right, I'm I'm writing notes that have never been written. But with Joe as my guide I mean, we're getting it done.

We're a duo. He's Daryl Hall, I'm John Oates, and we're going.

Okay. Now Because I'm the shorter one. That's why you dare. I would get up and I would lead singing. And the second summer I worked there, there was a guy.

Whose life had fallen apart. And he used to sing. Kind of for a living. He traveled around the mid-Atlantic, Maryland, Virginia. Uh Delaware.

And he would, with his family, sing gospel music, and he would preach. And his wife left him, his marriage fell apart, he hit the bottle Hard, became an addict and ended up from out in Salisbury, Maryland, ended up as a recovering drunk in this hillbilly mission. His name was John, and John and I became fast friends. And he was old enough to be my dad. But we connected in John we would go in and we would Do music together, and I would lead in singing, and John would play.

But here was the problem: John was super talented, but John couldn't read music.

So, John played everything by ear, so he had to kind of pick it up and then get going, and then he kind of learned along the way. This song was my favorite song we would do at that mission. It is my favorite song because when I would sing it And he would play it. He was. The embodiment.

of this song. To me, I thought of him when I sang this song. because I thought of one. who felt so broken.

So alienated.

So far There is a place of quiet rest. near to the heart of God. There is a place. where sin cannot molest. Near to the heart of God, O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before you.

near to the heart of God. There's a place of comfort sweet near to the heart of God. A place where we, our Savior, meet near to the heart of God. In the final verse, there's a place of. Release.

I love that. There's a place where you can finally let go and just be you. Just be you. Near to the heart of God. A place where all is joy and peace, near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before you. near to the heart of God Father. We were alienated in every way. Lost in sin and degradation.

Walking in our trespasses and sins, by nature objects of wrath. Without a Messiah, without a citizenship, without covenants of promise, having no hope and without God. But You. have drawn us near. But you.

have made us whole. But you Abide with us. But through you. There is a place of quiet rest. that is near to your heart.

And I thank you for that. I rest in that in my life. And I pray. Lord, that if there's anyone here Who is kicking against the goads, as you told the Apostle Paul? If there's anyone here who is warring, trying to cobble together their own worldview.

Would you, O God and King, rescue them today? And for those of us. Who are in this fleshly tent, this body, grappling with life in a fallen world, remind us that we can celebrate and we can rest because you brought us near. In Jesus' name.