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together, grow it unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also have built it together, for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Brother Cady, will you pray for us please? All right, dear Lord, thank you for the sign you have to hear your word be preached. I ask that you please bless Dr. Jones with your Holy Spirit as he comes to preach your word, and help us all to pay attention to all you have for us. In the name of Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, amen. So we're in Ephesians chapter two, and we're going to be talking about the middle wall of partition in verse 14. You know, if somebody comes up and asks you, hey, you know, what does that mean? You know, do you have an answer? Would you be able to explain that? And I think obviously you can. But I want to give you some stuff to think about this evening. Now, being as this is the month of December, I figured out every Wednesday we'll dedicate a study to something that Jesus Christ did or has done away with. Because, you know, quite honestly, I see a lot of people, you know, getting ready for Christmas and talking about Christ and stuff, but they really have no idea what he's done, you know, on a large scale. And that's really a shame when you think about it. You know, as gospel people, we should know and be able to explain these things. We should constantly be seeking to better know who our Savior was, right? Now, obviously, you know, this goes without saying, but, you know, you just have to hear the gospel or, you know, a clear presentation of the gospel, believe, be saved. You don't have to know every single detail about what Christ did to be saved. So don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that. But to grow as a disciple, you know, which is his expectation, which is what he desires, we need to take a look at some of the deeper things that surround the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible. And that's why last week I preached that sermon called Seven Once's of Christ. And we took a look at that word once and what it really means, right? One time and no more, meaning his sacrifice. We said it was finished because it's a done deal, right? We don't have to keep sacrificing today, but, you know, lo and behold, there are denominations, there are so-called Christians, there are religions out there that like to push this agenda. Well, we still have to offer sacrifices through repenting of our sins, right? And what happens when you don't do a sacrifice? You know, there's consequences for that. Is that what the Bible says? Obviously not. That has nothing to do with salvation, but you know what? There are churches all over the world today that are teaching their people, you know, you have to turn from your sins to be saved. Without works, you're going to hell. That's what Paul Washer said. You know, saying that is blasphemous. And we talked about that. You know, you're basically saying that the once sacrifice that Christ did, meaning one time and no more, wasn't good enough, right? That you have to have some part in this. You have to still go into the temple. You know, I like to call these people veil menders, you know, when the Bible says that God, you know, tore that veil in half, you know, you got people today still trying to mend that thing together. You know, and it's the same thing with the middle wall of partition. You have people like Sam Gipp, right? Sam, the dispensationalist Gipp, who is just off his rocker on so many things. You know, he teaches that, you know, you're lucky that you can even be saved today. You know, the only reason that you're saved is because the Jews rejected Christ. You know, he wants to put Christians down here like under the table, right? And I've even heard dispensationalists say that, you know, we need to think of ourselves like as, you know, the Greeks where Jesus was talking about how, you know, it's the dogs that get the crumbs under the table and that sort of thing. And that's just disgusting. That's just false doctrine. But anyways, a lot of the false doctrine that those types of people preach, they get it from this, from twisting Ephesians two and obviously several other passages. So we're going to get into this thing here. Rebuilding the middle wall of partition and kind of like I talked about on Sunday, right? About the anomalies. How do we learn or educate ourselves about the unknown? Well, it's, we reason from the known, right? Which is the word of God, what we do know to the unknown. So it's important that we know what is written. It's important that we know what is leading up to verse 14, which talks about the middle wall of partition in order to figure that out. Okay. What the scholar does today and what a lot of people do is they do the opposite of that. They start with the unknown and then try to build back to what's known. This is why they'll get up. These scholarly type pastors will get up in front of the congregation and say, well, you know, in the original languages or, you know, the original manuscripts and things like that, because they like to take what is seemingly unknown or really is unknown and then they try to just go backwards and reconstruct it. That's the wrong way of doing business. We have the Bible is preserved by God. We believe every word of it. So the more that we know, the more success that we're going to have in proving or explaining or learning the unknown, right? We reason from the known to the unknown. And so if the middle wall of partition is a doctrine, a thing that you don't know about, I'm going to help you out with that this evening. So let's start this off here. Look at verse number 11. It says, wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. Now I used to go, I've gone to several dispensational churches in my life. And to be honest, you know, when I was a kid, the church that I got saved at was dispensational. Now today, they're like way, way, way out to lunch. It's terrible. It's very bad, but I've been to churches. Well, they'll say this stuff here. They'll say, remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh. They'll say, well, see in the past, Gentiles could not be saved. In the past, they were referred to by God as the uncircumcised or the uncircumcision. And that's why God sent Israel to wipe them all out. Is that true? Did God send Israel to wipe the whole world out so there would just be Israel? No, that's stupid. But you know what? I've heard it with my own ears. People teach this kind of garbage. Look at the verse carefully. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, right? Obviously not every human being in the world was born in Israel at that time. So you had people that were born outside of Judah, outside of the physical nation of Israel. They were called Gentiles. But he says who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision and the flesh made by hands. So basically what he's saying here is, hey, don't forget how the Jews basically refer to you guys as being uncircumcised or unsaved, right? And just without hope and just no chance of salvation whatsoever. That is what the idea was. That's what a lot of the Jews taught even back then. And you can see that when you read through Acts, right? Why in Acts chapter 21 were they so upset thinking that Paul had brought an Ephesian into the temple, right? Because their mindset was, well, it's not supposed to go in there. You're not supposed to have any part in this and so on and so forth. Now look at verse number 12. It says that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the common wealth of Israel. Now this is true. We're going to take a look at this. But in the Old Testament, the question that I have for you is was it possible for a stranger, for a Gentile, so to speak, to join himself to the physical nation of Israel? And it wasn't. We're going to study that tonight. Was it possible for them to even be saved? Absolutely, right? But what he's saying here that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the common wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. And that sums up a lot of people today. There are people that we interact with every single day that don't know Jesus Christ. They're not saved. And you know what? They're aliens in the spiritual nation of Israel, which is the Israel of God today. That's the only Israel that matters. The Israel today in the Middle East is a complete fraud. It's a hoax. It's man-made and it's constructed. And they have the same attitude that these Jews that we're reading about in this passage had, right? They look at you. They look at me. They look at us as the uncircumcised, as uncircumcised, right? And you have people like John Hagee who want to go out there and say, well, they don't need a Messiah. They're still on the old covenant, right? And then I guess in the millennium, we're going to have this hybrid like New Testament and Old Testament mixture, a third covenant or something. I'm not kidding. It's what he teaches. And that's where dispensationalism ultimately leads you is to saying stuff like that. And you'll see that as we study this out here. But real quickly, look at verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off or made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now let's take a look at some other things here. Now go to Exodus chapter number 12. Exodus chapter number 12. Because again today, the teaching is people will say, you know, you know, the Messiah, you know, we weren't promised a Messiah, right? The Jew, he was promised a Messiah and he rejected it. So then, you know, Jesus said, well, I'm going to go to, you know, to the Gentile nations. Is that true? Is that attitude true? You know what that does? It just puts down God's people. You know, I just can't for the life of me understand why somebody would want to listen to Sam Gipp or even go to Treasure Valley Baptist Church. What a trash can. And that's the kind of garbage that that guy teaches. Look, you'd be better off going to a mega church. I'm serious. Because at least there, you're just not going to get anything. You know what I mean? And that's why we get more people saved in the mega church than we do at these mega dispensational Baptist churches. You know, we run into a lot of their church members and guess what? Quite frankly, they're not saved. You know, either it goes one of two ways, right? Either they just won't let you get a word in or they completely go to works. Or they'll say, yes, I'm saved in this dispensation. I've had it. Who's had that? I have had that out soul winning in this community. Well, in this dispensation, I'm saved. There's somebody that's like, I mean, you're going to have to bring out your sledgehammer to really break down that wall of partition, my friend. Exodus chapter 12, look at verse 48. Exodus chapter 12, look at verse 48. And we're going to hammer this home here and we're going to explain. I'm going to explain to you what this middle wall of partition is, but we got to go with the known first, right? Before we go to the unknown. Verse 48. And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised and let them come near and keep it. And he shall be as one that is, what? Born in the land for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. Well, now that's interesting because back in Ephesians, what did we read? Paul said, hey, you guys are called the uncircumcision by the circumcision. So was that attitude, was what they were called, is that biblical? Not at all, because it only takes you to go to Exodus chapter 12 to learn that who? Strangers could join themselves to the nation of Israel. They could partake in the Passover, right? They were to be treated as one born in the land. And guess what? They could be saved. Now, obviously physical circumcision didn't save them, but they were allowed to get physically circumcised to actually join the nation and get their actual physical citizenship in Israel. Everybody understand that? Who's heard a dispensationalist teacher teach that? I never have. And I've gone to the churches for years. I know some of them have read that. You know what they'll say? Oh, well, you know, you just don't get it. You just don't understand. And then they'll flip and talk about something else. You just don't understand. You're antisemitic. You're heading down the antisemite road is what you're doing. Look at verse 49. One law shall be to him that is homeborn and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. Go to Exodus chapter number 20, Exodus chapter number 20. So it's starting to sound to me like in the Old Testament, a Gentile, somebody who wasn't born in Israel could be saved. I don't know about you, but that's what it's starting to sound like to me. And in verse 49, it says that one law shall be to him that was born in the land and the stranger, right? One law. Not like how we have in America today, right? Where they want to make a law for the foreigner or the legal alien that comes over and he can go to college and get all this free stuff that you hardworking people can't do. And you don't want to go to college anyways. You get the point, right? Just more wickedness that our nation's involved in. But anyways, this has one law. One law. Well, let's take a look at part of the law that they would have to be subject to, okay? With that in mind. So we're talking about strangers. They're under the same law as the Israelite. Look at verse 1, Exodus 21. And God spake all these words. Now, let me ask you a question. Is this law that we're about to read, was this the law of the land in Israel? The answer is yes, okay? This is the law of the land. Exodus 1249, one law shall be to him that is homeborn and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. So that means that they would have had to know and God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. So it sounds to me like if we rightly divide the word of truth, that God wanted Gentiles or sojourners or strangers rather, to know this law. One law. To the people that were born in the land and to the strangers. But yet people want to sit here and say, well, they couldn't be saved. The only reason you're saved today is because the Jew rejected his promise. But that's not what I'm seeing here. Look at verse 3, thou shall have no other gods before me. Now, why would God want a stranger, a Gentile to know this if he couldn't be saved? Verse 4, thou shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Again, if a Gentile couldn't be saved, why would God want this to be their law? Verse 5, thou shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So God says that he's jealous over his people. Why do we get jealous over that? Why should a husband get jealous over a wife? Because the wife belongs to the husband. That is a righteous thing. That is okay. We're not talking about envy. We're talking about jealous. God says that he's a jealous God. He is jealous over you, his child. Did you guys know that? So if there's supposed to be one law for the person that was home born and the stranger, why would God say, I want him to know that I'm jealous over my people? I'll tell you why. Because they could be saved in the Old Testament. It's not that hard to understand. This is the second book in the Bible. The second book in the Bible. But yet today you have countless Christians who cannot explain this doctrine. They don't know the answers to these questions. They really don't. And it's a tragedy. Look at verse six. And showing mercy unto thousands of Jews that love me and keep my commandments. Somebody slipped an NIV in on me, I think. Oh, it doesn't say that. It says to thousands of them that love me. So certainly, and by the way, during this time period here, was there such a thing as a Jew? No. These people were Hebrews. You don't read about a Jew until second Kings, what, 16? Is it 16 or 17? Somewhere in that neighborhood there where Israel and, what is it, Syria are going to attack Judah. And it says in the Jews. Interesting stuff. Very interesting. Look at verse number seven. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Thy God. One law for the home-born person, one law for the stranger. This proves that they could be saved. This proves that they could join the nation of Israel and live a blessed life and be God's children. Right? And he's not saying that you have to do all of these things perfectly and do sacrifices to gain salvation. That's a sermon for another day. But if you would, go over to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19. We're going to go back. We're going to go to Deuteronomy here in a moment, but go to Leviticus 19. I'm trying to test out these Bible charts that we have over here, right? If you get lost, there's one over here with all the books of the Bible and one over here. So just look up there and start flipping. Leviticus 19. Look at verse 34. It says this. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you. And thou shalt love him as thyself. Now the attitude that I read about in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11, does that sound like those Jews were following this law? Not at all. Starting to sound like we're talking about man-made ordinances. A man-made wall, if you catch my drift. It says, and thou shalt love him as thyself for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt and I am the Lord your God. You see, it's so idiotic that these Jews have this racist attitude. Oh, Jew, yes Jew. Oh, I'm a Jew and everything that I do is better than you, right? I just made that up, by the way. Because they were strangers at one point in time themselves. And by the way, who was the first Hebrew, if you will? Abraham. What does the Bible say that Abraham was? Of what ethnicity? Syrian. It does say that. So it's kind of interesting. The first Hebrew was a Syrian. Not a Syrian, but Syrian. He was a Syrian. Okay, get it? All right, go to 2nd Chronicles chapter number 6. 2nd Chronicles chapter number 6. And this is helpful, right? Remember, we go from, we reason from the known to the unknown. We reason from the known to the unknown. So when you run into difficult passages, even in the New Testament, you need to make sure that you go back and study prior to what you've read, okay? Now again, I'll just tell you this, while you're flipping, if you type in the word partition in the Bible, guess what's not going to pop up multiple times with dimensions, right? A wall. Think about that. I mean, if you guys who have read the Bible at least one time, right? You know you've gone through all the dimensions of the tabernacle and the temple and how David prepped for it and how Solomon built it and it gives all the lengths and the diameters and just, I mean, it goes on in great detail. Do you think that God just left out this middle wall of partition? Do you think he just forgot to put that in there and didn't want to, to offend, to not offend people? Or could it be that it was a man-made object? Look at verse 32. 2nd Chronicles, look at 6, 32. So this is Solomon dedicating the temple here and he's commemorating the temple. He's praying unto God and he says this in verse 32, Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name's sake and thy mighty hand and stretched out arm. If they come and pray in this house, verse 33, then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for. Now remember, Solomon was the wisest man during this time. He's the wisest man that has ever lived and he got that wisdom from God, right? So you should understand that while reading this and then look at somebody who teaches you the exact opposite and put two and two together and realize that's somebody that needs to go back to the drawing board or somebody who just needs to get saved so they can clearly understand the Bible. So he goes on to say this. Let's see here it says that all people of the earth may know thy name and fear thee as doth thy people Israel and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. Go to Deuteronomy chapter number four. So what is one of the agendas, what's one of the goals here of the temple? Is it just for Israel or is there another purpose? There's another purpose. He says that all the people of the earth may know thy name. We need to understand that God established the physical nation of Israel for what reason? Not just for himself, not just to not to create like a hybrid person, but that his name and his ways would get spread throughout the entire world. People act like this whole evangelizing thing is a New Testament concept, right? Like people never in the Old Testament talked about God or talked about being saved or wanted to spread the name of Jehovah God, right? That's false doctrine. That is just not true. Deuteronomy chapter four, going back to the law, look at verse number six. It says this, keep therefore and do them, talking about the statutes, talking about the commandments, keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding, notice this, and the sight of the nations. Starting to understand what's going on here. It's the same thing with the New Testament believer. We keep the commandments and the statutes not to be saved, right? But to display wisdom to the world. This is why in the New Testament, the word conversation comes up a lot, right? And most of the time it's not talking about a verbal exchange between two people. It's talking about you conversing with the new man that you have versus the old man. Because when you do that, that displays wisdom and that projects that wisdom of God to the heathen, right? I'm not talking about, we're switching to lifestyle evangelism here, but it does speak volumes. It does help the cause of Christ. So he says this, which shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people that is highly applicable to us today. We need to know this verse for multiple reasons. One, because this is how we should act as the spiritual nation of Israel. We should follow the commandments. We should go to church. We should learn doctrine. We should do these things so that people will look and say, Hey, there's a wise person. Hey, there's somebody maybe I should listen to. But look at the verse again, keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding and the sight of the nations, because people are always watching. But what this also proves is that God's intent in setting up Israel was to get his name out there to reach humanity, to reach people. But that's not what's being taught today. That's not what's being taught today. You see that was God's agenda. Even in the Old Testament, that's God's agenda today. But you have these people that want to erect this wall, this middle wall of partition, which separates us from God. And I would submit to you, that's exactly what the doctrine of dispensationalism does. It's nothing more than a spiritual wall of partition that basically sets us apart from Christ and his promises and his covenant. Ultimately, go to Luke chapter number two, Luke chapter number two. So even though we're turning to Luke, I'm going to show you a Old Testament verse here because you can find people that, you know, understood this in the Bible, even in the New Testament. So New Testament book Luke, but this is pre-cross. So still Old Testament. Luke chapter two, verse 30. Popular verse around this time of year. Luke chapter two. Oh, I watched Charlie Brown. That's great. You ever read Luke chapter two? Have you ever read Luke chapter one? Have you ever read the whole book of Luke? Have you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? You know what I mean? We need to know these things. But look at verse 30. For mine, this is Simeon speaking here. He says, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon is an interesting character here because he was promised by the Holy Ghost before the Holy Ghost and dwell believers that he would not pass on until the Lord's salvation appeared into Israel. So he says, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, talking about Jesus, which thou has prepared before the face of all people. Now look at this, verse 32. A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people, Israel. Look, I don't know if Sam Gibbs ever read this verse or not. I'm not going to ask him because I don't want to talk to the guy. But the stuff that I've heard him say and the stuff that I've heard his pastors say, the stuff that I've heard the people that he influences say, contradict this right here. Look, I heard a guy one time. He said, you know what? Simeon was a prophet. And so he knew the Jews were going to reject Christ. So he just said this. And you're lucky, boy. You're lucky the Jews rejected Christ. Or what? Then Gentiles just wouldn't be able to get saved? We'd just be going to hell like we have been since Genesis? Well, we already disproved that. That's obviously false doctrine. You see what I mean? These people need to be called out on the carpet and you have to know these things because you're the ones in the trenches. We are the ones out there in the community interacting with these people and we have got to have the answers. So he says a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people, Israel. Verse 33, and Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. I often wondered if the reason why they marveled was because of the attitude during that time. Remember Judah was just a province of the Roman empire at that time. You know, so they didn't have the most favorable view towards outsiders during this time. You know, by this generation here, I mean, they'd already gone through what the Greeks, the Persians, and then obviously the Babylonians, and then, you know, several bad battles with bad kings. And so I get why they could be bitter, right? But, you know, it just shows a lack of teaching even during this time for them to even have that attitude. Okay. Go to John chapter number 12. John chapter number 12. Look at verse 20. It says this, John 12, 20, and there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. Well, that's interesting because they hadn't completely and fully rejected Christ. He's still walking around the earth, still teaching, still doing miracles here, right? But what's the idea today? Well, the wall of partition was still up, so they couldn't get saved yet. They couldn't be part of the nation. They couldn't do this. They couldn't do that. Well, it's kind of interesting here because these Greeks seem to be smarter than any dispensationalist that you could find today because they came up to worship here at this feast. Verse 21, the same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and desired him, saying, sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again, Philip, I'm sorry, and again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Go back to Ephesians and we'll start moving forward. So if we're going to learn what this middle wall of partition is, like I said, we have to start with what we know. Well, what do we know? We know that the Gentiles or strangers, if you will, in the Old Testament, they could change their citizenship. They could literally join the nation of Israel. And guess what? They could even do the Passover. Now, does that mean that if they joined themselves to the tribe of Levi that they could be priests? Obviously not, right? That's a true fact, right? But they'll jump on something like that and they'll focus on that. Well, they couldn't even go into the temple. Well, the tribe of Reuben wasn't supposed to go in there. It was like, get real. So verse 14 again, he says this, for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Now, out of anything that I read to you, did anything suggest like there was supposed to be, like the Hebrew is supposed to be a lot higher of a status than the stranger? Or was there supposed to be one law? One law. One Passover, right? They didn't need a different Passover. What was the Passover a picture of? Right? Christ. Isn't it kind of funny that God wanted strangers to know that, but yet they couldn't be saved in the Old Testament? Isn't that kind of funny to you? You know, and Paul's telling the Ephesians, hey, remember Christ brought down this middle wall of partition. And this is where the Dispos and the Ziles, they go completely nuts. See, we're right. You're antisemitic. You're wrong. Christ had to come and put away. But until that time, you know, there was a big separation. Now I get it. There was a sacrificing, mediating priesthood in the Old Testament. Strangers were not to be part of that, right? You couldn't go get a stranger, circumcise them, bring them into the nation of Israel and give them, you know, priestly duties. Bad idea. God did not set things up that way. But before we get any further into this, go to Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. We're going to come right back to Ephesians, but go to Acts chapter 21 real quick. And I'll show you this here. Acts chapter 21, look at verse 28. It says this, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man that teaches all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple and hath polluted this holy place. Now, what did Solomon say? Did he say, hey, if a stranger comes to you, if a stranger wants to get something right, if he needs help from you, you know, he had enough understanding to pray that prayer and to ask God to grant their request. So could a stranger not get his, you know, partake of the sin offering or the peace offering and stuff like that? It's ridiculous. But look at the attitude of these people here today, right? This is basically a picture of the middle wall partition, which is a man-made wall, a man-made ordinance. Look at verse 29. Jump down to verse 29 says this, for they had seen before with him in the city, Trophimus and Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. And of course, during this time here, you know, they were, you know, just looking for any angle to get Paul, to get the apostles arrested and to just cause trouble. But obviously there were laws forbidding strangers from certain duties and doing things in the temple. No doubt about that. You know, I understand that completely, but what I don't see in the Old Testament are the dimensions or the law or a description or a heavy emphasis on this wall of partition that God ordained, that God set up. But yet the Bible says that Jesus came back and he broke down the middle wall partition. And it's such an important thing that Paul wanted the Ephesians to really understand what this means. Now, if you study secular history, you'll see that the temple that was rebuilt did have a wall of separation. And that's probably what you're kind of reading here in Acts chapter number 21. But is the question that I have, was that biblical? I mean, I mean, come on. God talked about the dimensions of the ark. You know, I mean, you could read in Kings about all the stuff that Solomon did, you know, the amount of trees. I mean, everything's like by length, height, depth, all of that stuff. But you don't see this wall of partition, right? You don't see it until you get to Ephesians and you kind of learn about it and you have to go back and get all the stuff that's known. Why is that? Well, it's because of the attitude of the Jews. That's why it's a man-made wall. That's what it was. It wasn't God's idea. It was not like God said, hey, put this wall in here and keep the Gentiles away from everything, right? They can't come past this point here because remember they can't get saved until the Jews reject me in the future. No, that's ridiculous. That's false doctrine. It's not true. And so what Paul's doing here is he's saying, hey, Christ broke down this wall of partition. Now did Christ speak and then the temple crumbled or did the Romans destroy it? Well, the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD is what we read in history, right? So this wall of partition that he's talking about is this Jew man-made ordinance, right? It basically says, you know what, hey, we still have to keep these laws. We still have to keep these statutes, you know, but you guys are kind of like down here, you know, just don't eat stuff sacrificed unto idols, you know, just don't eat stuff with blood and, you know, you're good. Just go do your little thing and us Jews will handle the rest, right? Kind of like James's attitude, right? Remember James was wrong when we studied Acts, wasn't he? You know, he's wrong to pressure Paul into going in and doing a sacrifice. That was wrong. That was not okay, right? That was a wrong thing that Paul did. And so when somebody asks you, well, what is this wall of partition? Well, it's a man-made wall. If you want to talk about it physically, because we don't read the dimensions in the Old Testament, we can see that Gentiles can be saved. Strangers could join themselves to the nation of Israel and be just fine. And we saw that the entire establishment of the physical nation of Israel was for what reason? It was to get God's name out there so that he could reach humanity. How about that for a Christmas message? This is why dispensationalist shouldn't celebrate Christmas. They have a warped view. They literally walk around with this wall of partition going, sticking like right out of their foreheads. You're a dog. Don't forget we're all dogs. You know, and they'll invite Israeli soldiers to their conference and have them talk about things and they'll, you know, promote, you know, watching all this Jew stuff on TV and, you know, I've seen these guys, you know, like on YouTube, right, this panel of dispensationalists and they've got gefilte fish and matzo crackers and like, we're going to keep the Passover. We're going to do this just like the Jews did. You know, we're going to commemorate our Jewish brethren. Look, one law, it was one law in the Old Testament for him that was born in the land and the stranger. Well, guess what? Jew and Gentile are made one in Christ. You know, when you bring that up to these people, these dispensations, I had one pastor in Washington. He said this. He's like, oh yeah? He goes, well, guess what? It also says there's neither male nor female in the kingdom of God. So explain that. You know, he had no answer for Jews and Gentiles being the same. It really pissed him off that I said that. So I said, you know what? Are you really that shallow? Think about it, right? We live in a fallen world, don't we? We live in a fallen state. You know, what did God tell Eve? You know, your desire is going to be enter your husband, right? The husband's ahead of the household. Guess what, guys? Unfortunately, that's going away, you know, in eternity. You know, so there's not going to be male and female as in, you know, the males like just the one in charge and the wife is subject to the husband. You're not going to have that anymore. That's what that means. Just like, you know, the Bible says that salvation is of the Jews, right? We read about that in John. Salvation was of the Jews. Well, first of all, what does that mean? That means that they had the ordinance, they had the truth, they had the commandments and the statutes, and they had the responsibility in the commission to bring that to the rest of the world. And so he's saying, hey, in Christ, there's no more Jew and Gentile separation. That's manmade. That's a wall of partition that they created out of pride and arrogance. And what's the result of just trash canning God's commandments? Well, something's going to substitute it. That's manmade laws. What was Jesus fighting about by and large while he was on this earth? Manmade commandments and ordinances and statutes. You know, when I said that to the pastor, he had no answer for that. It was really Christmas because I could just hear the bells ringing. You know, you could see the bells going off in his head, but the pride was just so much that he just couldn't admit it. So somebody comes at you with that, well, it also says, man, there's not going to be male nor female in Christ. Well, Peter Ruckman says that's because everybody, whether you're male, well, all the females that die are going to be 30-year-old males, right? Isn't that what he says? That's what he said. That's what Peter Ruckman, the dispensationalist, taught. You see where this stuff leads? You can't explain a basic doctrine, something that Christ did away with in Ephesians chapter two, a chapter that we go to routinely in our gospel presentations to get people saved. Hopefully you can learn to explain the verses afterwards because you never know when somebody is going to be like, hey, what about this down here? Because James White loves it though. Oh yeah, these guys, they just love to go around and use Ephesians 2, 8, 9. They never talk about verse 10. Sure we do after they get saved. Or if they have questions, you know, we are saved unto good works, not by good works. There's a big, big difference. We should do good works. There's a lot of stuff that we should do, but what you should do is not what is a requirement because, you know, what must I do to be saved? One time in the Bible, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's crystal clear. There's no debating that unless you're trying to deceive people, right? Unless you're trying to deceive people. That's the only way you would be able to debate that. Now, Ephesians 2, I'll look at verse number 15 and we'll finish up here. So the middle wall of partition, it, you know, Paul saying, hey, Christ, he abolished that just by the nature of what he did. And if you really think about it, he abolished it back in Genesis. He abolished, I mean, how are you going to read Deuteronomy chapter four, verse six and think that this middle wall of partition is something that God ordained? How are you going to read Exodus chapter 12 and come to that conclusion? Why are strangers doing the Passover? Exodus 20, why is there supposed to be like, you know, Exodus 12 and you compare Exodus 12 and 20, you see there's supposed to be one law for both people. Why is that even in the Bible? If that's not true, if there's supposed to be this separation, we'll keep these dirty heathen Greek people over here, right? It's an abomination to even hear. It's ridiculous. Look at verse 15. So he says this after verse 14, it says, verse 15, having abolished in his flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man. So making peace, you know, what is this twain stuff you're talking about? Well, think about it, right? We're made up of body, soul, and spirit, right? Before a person is saved, you still have body, soul, and spirit, but your soul and your spirit is not joined together. So your body, I mean, that's just what we see, you know, when we look at each other, you know, this physical flesh, you know, that's what keeps things running. Now your soul, that's your personality. That's really who you are. This is why the Bible is, you know, filled with doctrine and wisdom so that we can improve our personality, improve our hearts, improve our minds, right? Because that all contributes to the soul. Now your spirit is what communicates with God. If you're not saved, you know, the Bible says very clearly that God doesn't hear your prayers. The only prayer that he hears is the prayer of salvation. But yet, what do we hear today from John Hagee? What do we hear today from Sam Giff? Oh, well, you know, God's blessing Israel. Oh, really? With Tel Aviv, which is pretty much the fag capital of the entire world. Get out of here with that garbage. It's not true. It's ridiculous. Those people, if they're not saved, God doesn't hear their prayers unless that's Lord taking heaven when I die, you know, unless they're calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only prayer that he hears from them. Now, when a person gets saved, the Bible says that the Holy Ghost quickens you, makes a new man, you're born again. Well, that born again is that spirit and that soul coming together and forming a new man. That is what that means. So when a person dies without Christ, the body goes into the ground, the soul goes to hell, and the spirit goes back to God whom gave it. Read about that in Ecclesiastes. It's very clear, no debating that. But when a saved person dies or goes to sleep, right, their soul, I mean, it's going back to God anyway, or their spirit's going back to God anyway, but now it has the soul attached to it. It goes up to God. So the believer never dies. You won't even skip a beat. You're just going to notice a change in scenery and peace and rest. And hopefully you're not like, oh, this judgment seat's not quite yet, right? We don't want to be that guy, okay? So he says, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, fortune making himself of twain, one new man, so making peace. Now, keep in mind here, this is different. So he says commandments contained in ordinances, okay? He doesn't say the law of God or the 10 commandments or the statutes or the testimonies. We're talking about just ordinances and different things that were set up regarding the temple and things that we've already spoken about this evening. Now, real quickly, go to Colossians 2. Colossians 2. And we're getting close to being done. Colossians 2. And so kind of a very similar message here to the Colossians. So in verse 10, Paul's telling them, you know, you guys are complete in Christ. Verse 12 is talking about how you're buried with Christ in baptism. We'll pick it up in verse 13. He says this, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, right? Remember, we've talked about this in great detail. He doesn't just forgive you of your trespasses up to the moment you get saved, but it's for all of them. It's a done deal because his sacrifice was done once and once means one time and no more, right? So verse, let's see here. Verse 14, look at verse 14. He says this, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Now hold on for a second here. He's not talking about this middle wall of partition like the dispensationalist would put it for you, okay? He's talking about, you know, he's done away with basically, you know, the law which condemns us. You know, he's given us remission. What's remission mean? Cancellation of a debt, right? That's what he's rid of. So he's blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. We are no longer subject, you know, from a consequential standpoint to the law. Now does God chase us when we violate the law? Of course he does, okay? But we're not going to die and go to the great white throne judgment, okay? We're not going to die and he's going to have a list of laws that we broke because he's paid the price for that. For the believer, we're not going to be held accountable for that, but what we've done with the gifts that he has given us. So look at verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. This is why the heathen rage. This is why the atheists get so upset because they know deep down their conscience smotes them. Their conscience tells them this because they have a measure of faith. Understand that. They have a measure of faith. So here's the deal, right? They know that deep down inside and they don't like it because of their pride and their continuous rejection of Christ. And so what does that do? That hardens their hearts. And so they get mad because what Christ did, it basically makes them look stupid. It makes their leader, the devil, look stupid. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. Verse 16, let no man therefore, so for that reason, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of the holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. You can see, I mean, you could go many different ways with this, right? You can, I mean, you can roast the seventh day Adventists that wants to get on your case for not worshiping on Saturday, right? You know, you see, you're starting to see why it's important that we understand what Christ did. Look, you're going to celebrate Christmas. We should know as much about Christ as we need to spend our lives learning about what he did. And a basic thing that he told the Ephesians, hey, he broke down that middle wall of partition, which was built by who? It was built by the Jew. It was built by people that wanted to separate us from God, right? Because the Jew wants to be the mediator between you and God. They want to tell you how to worship. They want to tell you how to read the Bible. They want to tell you how to study the Bible. And it all points back to them. And if you don't believe me, just go listen to a dispensationalist for about 10 minutes and you'll see what I'm talking about is true. Go back to Ephesians. We'll finish this up. All right, look at verse 16. So he says this, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And that's a good study there. You go back to Genesis three and learn about that enmity. But look at verse 17. He says this, and came and preached peace to you, which were afar off and to them that were nigh. Well, guess what? You know, if Ephesus was quite a ways journey, I'm guessing from Jerusalem, right? But this peace had to be preached to both because in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile. There's no way around this. I mean, go read Romans chapter two, you know, verse 28, if you want to learn what a Jew is. So look at verse 18. He says this, for though, I'm sorry, for through him, we both have access by one spirit unto the father. Now, according to the dispensationalist, right, who is working very hard at building a wall of partition in Christianity today, they would say differently. Well, they have their covenant, they have a different spirit. And so they access God where we just access Jesus, where we access God by Jesus. I'm serious. This is, this is widely taught. This is widely taught in Christianity today. Look, I've even been to churches that aren't dispensationalist or yeah, dispensational that will teach stuff like this. Where do they get it from? Well, probably from commentaries, you know, things of that nature, maybe Bible college, whichever one they went to, you know, either way, they're not getting that from the Bible. So look at verse 19, now, therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Jews and the household of God. Oh, he says with the saints in the household of God. Jew is just a name. That's all it is. And by the way, being Jewish is not a race. It's a religion and it's a false religion. I've asked, I like, if I run into a dispensationalist or he's a Sunday school teacher or somebody who's really involved, I'll be like, Hey, have you guys preached against Judaism? I'll try to work that question out. I will. And you watch next time you talk to a dispensationalist, ask him that, Hey, have you preached? If it has your church or you have you, you preached or studied, you know, the false religion of Judaism and just watch that steam come out of their ears. Boy, they'll get pissed, man. Oh boy. I love it. But Hey, you can defend yourself. Right. I gave you enough. You can, and look, type in the word stranger in the Bible and see how many times it comes up. We could do a whole series on this. Okay. I mean, it, look, it is just astronomical. Look at verse 19. Now, therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And don't ever let anybody tell you different. If you do, you're allowing this wall to be built in your mind. Verse 20 and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple and the Lord in whom he also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the spirit. So we're going to wrap this up here. So again, you can see what is the wall of partition. It's not ordained by God. It was never ordained by God. It's what these Jews decided to make up, to separate themselves, to elevate themselves. Right. I mean, doesn't the Bible tell you that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and you know, these scribes, they just love to be seen in the marketplaces. They love to disfigure their faces and appear to be fasting before man and to be high up. That was what they wanted. They wanted the eyeballs. They wanted that, that just that clout that comes with that position. That's what they wanted. It's filled with pride as false doctrine. None of that's true whatsoever. And so, you know, again, I'm just going to say this here. Anytime in the Bible that you find something that you don't know, you need to sit back and think, okay, what do we know? And you go from there. You don't go the other way because that's when we get ourselves into big, big trouble. And again, you know, being the month of December, you know, we, nothing really changes. I mean, we still go out soul winning. You know, we still go out and talk to people. And sometimes people seem a little more open this month, you know, and they might be filled with questions. We need to have the answers for them, right? Because there's some tough nuts to crack out there, especially dispensational types. And, you know, part of celebrating the birth of Christ is celebrating what he accomplished on this earth. And Zionism, dispensationalism, which is nothing more than a wall of partition, he destroyed that. He completely abolished it. That's what that means. They'll say, oh no, that's just where he allowed Gentiles to be saved. False doctrine, not true at all. Amen. So we need to understand these things and get better at explaining them to people. And I think we do a great job here, right? I mean, obviously most of you wouldn't be here if you didn't agree with this, but I mean, put it to the test if you don't, you know, and good luck, good luck trying to prove that Zionism garbage. I don't know how you're going to do it. I don't know how you're going to do it. Unless you go back to Chinese or something, you know, unless you got a bag of tricks, that's about the only way. So just keep that in mind. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for what you've done, Lord, and for revealing again just so much more truth to us. Just pray you help us to remember these things and that bless our week, Lord. Help us out soul winning again tomorrow and bring us back all safely on Sunday. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.