This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Dr. Pete Alunson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part two in a series on the Holy Spirit. This message is taken from Ephesians chapter two verses 13 through 19 and it's called instant access. Now here's Pete with today's message. Well, if you have your Bibles, take them and turn to Ephesians. Some of you've been gone and you're back and you say, wait a minute, I thought we finished that series in Ephesians. We did it, but now we're doing a mini series in Ephesians. We're going to go back through that book and looking at the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the book of Ephesians because there was just more, frankly, that needed to be said. So, we speak on the whole, we speak. Boy, that's good. We spoke on the Holy Spirit last week. We're talking about him today. Next week is Mother's Day. Guys, there it is. You owe me. Mother's Day is next week. We're going to talk about the Holy Spirit there and at that time, and then on the 20th, Steve Brown is going to speak. You're going to be speaking on the Holy Spirit. You've written a book on the Holy Spirit and knows more than I do and so I'm looking forward to hearing his message on May 20th and invite your friends to that as well. But as we talk about the Holy Spirit today, we're going to be talking about instant access. Jeff Vogue and told me the story this week about this guy who died. A man who died and stands before the pearly gates in heaven, talking to St. Peter and Peter looks at him and he says, all right, tell me one reason why I ought to let you into heaven. And this guy says, well, I wasn't particularly spiritual in my life. I didn't go to church much. I didn't read the Bible a lot hardly at all. I was kind of a mess. But there was one thing I did and one time I was taking a trip in the South Dakota and the Black Hills and I came across this biker group. They were really an evil looking biker group and they were surrounding this car with this young lady in it and they were threatening her. So I walked up to him, the whole group and I said, you guys need to clear out and leave her alone and they wouldn't. They didn't move. So I went up to the leader. He was about six, six, bald, 20 inch biceps, tattoos head to foot, gun on his hip. I went up to him. I slapped him on the side of the head, took his nose ring, ripped it out through it on the ground, kicked over his bike and I said, listen, biker boy. You better clear out of here. You're going to have to deal with me. St. Peter says, wow, that was brave. When did that happen? He said, about two minutes ago. I like that story. I don't have any particular application for it but I just, no, I like, there's some good things about it. Here's a guy that's doing something heroic. He's stepping up, he's seeing a need and that's good. He's a manly guy stepping up doing what we ought to do. I like that also because it talks about how there is life after death, that this isn't all there is. There's a life to come, there is a reckoning. We do stand not before St. Peter but we do stand before the living God of the universe and we give an account for our life. I like that. The only downside of it is actually a rather large one and that is it sends the message that we enter into the presence of the living God after death. By something that we have done, we gain access with God by some merit that we supposedly have a crude, have to achieve and that couldn't be further from the truth. We are not saved by works, we're saved by faith. To say that we could be saved by our own merit is a lie that was concocted in the boardroom of hell. No way, no way. That's St. Peter's marketing there but today as we continue this series on the Holy Spirit we're going to see how Jesus provides access and how the Holy Spirit takes the work of Christ and applies that into our heart in such a way that he mediates that access to God for us. We have instant access and constant access into the presence of the living God. So let's look at this text, Ephesians 2, 13 through 19 and it's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles. We've studied this before so most of you already have these verses memorized because we've already taught on them but here we go. Paul says talking about Jews and Gentiles but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made the two one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, Jew and Gentile are not separate, they're one thus making peace and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near for through him Jesus. We both Jew and Gentile have our access to the Father by one spirit. Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. This is God's word and how it starts out is telling us how many people are far off and out of touch. In fact all of us at one time were far away and we've been brought near but Jesus makes this point doesn't he in Matthew 7 that all of us before we come to faith in Christ and in fact most of the world is separated from God is far off and out of touch from the living God of the universe. Let's look at these famous words. Enter through the narrow gate. Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, moms, dads, have you ever wagged your finger, your kids, you're on the way to destruction. Now these are Jesus words. There are many who enter into and through the narrow gate that the broad gate that leads to destruction. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few that find this explains the world really doesn't it? That the world is a mess because there are so many people who are headed down a road deliberately away from the God of the universe. They want to go the way they're going nobody's making them go that way and they're headed toward destruction that's the way they want to go. They don't have access with God. They don't have a connection with God. They don't have a relationship with God and as a result of not having a relationship with God they don't have good relationships with other people. They don't have access. But there was a time when two people had perfect instant and constant access with God. Remember when that was back in Genesis 1, 2 and it got broken up in Genesis 3. You know one of the big questions we got some elders in here maybe we ought to ask the elders how long did Adam and Eve live together in the Garden of Eden before they sent? Answer, we don't know. That's why none of the I was going to put one of the elders on a spot but you know I need those guys and I need this job so we don't know. But before they send they had that access. Genesis 3, verse 6, Eve unfortunately bought the lie that God was holding out on them. Eve bought the lie that God wanted to make their lives miserable and that's why he was withholding that one tree. Well this is what we find. When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleased into the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom she took some an 8. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate and then the eyes of both of them were opened. They realized they were naked so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. And then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they, what did they do? They hid from the Lord among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, Adam, Adam where are you? Do you think he didn't know? You know the sovereign God of the universe who was omniscient, I can't find you. Okay, come out wherever you are. No, where are you? He's just drawn him out and he hears this voice from behind a very leafy tree. I heard you in the garden but I was afraid because I was naked so I hid and God said who told you you were naked? You never had problems with that before? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from the man said the woman you put here with me? She gave me some fruit for the tree. I ate it. I'm not dealing with this text on Mother's Day for good reason. Then in verse 13, then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? You see, what happened is they had access with God didn't they? They lived in this paradise, this perfect environment, a perfect man, a perfect woman in a perfect place. They had this relationship and then because they ate of the tree because they disobeyed God because they bought the lie that God's really trying to make their life miserable. Their whole life was changed. What happened? What happened? They hid. Why do you hide from somebody? Guilt? You hide because you're guilty. Why did they cover up? Shame. Why do you experience shame because you've done something wrong? Then what else? What was the next thing? They started blaming each other. Why do they blame each other? Because they haven't now because everything has changed. They have an incredible inability to accept personal responsibility. And by the way, they're also fearful of God. Why? Well, because he's the judge. Adam and Eve felt guilty because they were guilty. They felt shame because they had done shameful things. They were fearful of God because God is the judge and they'd sinned. And so the reality is that everything got changed here. Now, we learned a couple of things here in this text that is so very important. We learned that we were created for constant and instant access with God all the time. Adam and Eve were created to be in connection with God all the time. They needed him for their own relationship. They needed him for every aspect of life before the fall. Now the world has gotten pretty messed up since then, hasn't it? It's horrible and it's compounded, isn't it? It's just getting worse and worse. Could it possibly get worse? Yes. And it will. Okay, now the question always comes up. Are we in the end times? And the answer is, yes. The first service, they're going, you guys think I'm out to get you. You have a guilt complex. Of course, we're in the end times. The Bible says we're in the end times. The question is, are we in the very end of the end times? That's what we don't know. Ask one of our elders because I don't know. They might. We don't know. So how is God going to clean up this world? He's done it historically in one way and that is by sending a revival, the revival of the Holy Spirit. He's going to clean it up when he comes again. You say, what do you mean revival? I've got all these books up here about the reformation of the 16th century. You know, Martin Luther, John Knox, took on Queens and then Jonathan Edwards, a faithful narrative, the surprising work of Christ, of God. What are all these books about revival? Where the Holy Spirit comes like a wind and he comes into a culture, a country, a place and he renews the hearts and minds of people. It's a supernatural, in the Welch revival, I don't even know what year it was. I mean, I have told you this before, people were so transformed, so many people came to faith in Christ that they had to fire the police because there was no crime. That's historically document. The world is getting worse since the Garden of Eden and it would be way horrible except God has done revivals. When Jesus comes back again, he's going to clean up the mess. Having said that, here's the truth, I want you to get. Even before Adam and Eve sinned, they needed to stay in close contact with God. Even before they sinned, I've asked my friend Tom Saunders to come up to be my sermon illustration right now. Tom, come on up, will you? I asked him this a long time ago at the beginning of the service, about two minutes ago. Can I get you to stand right over here, Tom? Now, Tom's a rollerblader, he does all kinds of stuff. You keep very active, I've seen you come to officer training in the bloody ankle because you've been out. All right, you're a pretty strong guy. All right, let me ask you this. Can you curl three pounds? Give it a shot, come on. All right, piece of cake, right? Five pounds. Five pounds, that's good. That's very good. It's 50 pounds. Oh, whoa, would you give him a round of applause? Thanks Tom. Wow, he did it. Now I bet you he pulled that muscle. Jeff Vogan in the first service couldn't do it. Could you curl 50 pounds? I can't. What's the point? The point is this, even before we were we sinned and fell into sin, we're strong. Adam and Eve were strong, but they weren't God. They were weak and they needed God constantly. They needed to have instant and constant access with God because God is far stronger and never created us to live on our own. What happened after sin came into the world? Oh, it made it all worse. If we needed constant and instant access with God before sin came into the world, do you think we need it now? Oh, man, absolutely. And the problem is is that we're so cut off from God. Why are there so many problems? Almost every problem in the world can be traced right back to the fact that when you're cut off from God, you're cut off from people. When you're away from the power and the love and the goodness of God, it will mess up your relationship. You will hide. You will wear masks. You will play games. You will run away. You'll feel fear and guilt and shame. We're cut off from God, far off in out of touch, but what is Jesus done? He's brought us close by and brought us in touch with him. Look at this, verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ, verse 17 again. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and pieced to those who were near for through him. We both have our access to the father by one spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. When Jesus went to the cross, what did he do? He literally became the one who took Adam's guilt that became your guilt and he carried that in his body. He took our shame. He took our tendency to blame others for our mess-ups. I know you don't do that, but I've been known to do that from time to time. He takes our fear of God. He takes the punishment of the God of the universe on himself for him, away from us so that we can have access to God so that we could be restored to what Adam and Eve had, that constant access. Why? Because we still have to make it through this world and it's a very bad world. It's a very dark world. I love John 3. You all know John 3.16. I don't make you all quote it. But John 3.1 is great too. Look how it starts out. There's a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher who's come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you're doing if God were not with him and Jesus doesn't want to just talk theology. He says, I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. Nicodemus is a little off his game and he says, how can a man be born when he's old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born. Jesus said, I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he's born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again and then catch this. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. If Jesus provided access to the Father, how do we get Jesus' work on the cross actually applied to us? I mean, he did it out there. How does it get put to my account? To your account, the spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the work of Christ and like a general wind, just kind of brings the gospel into your heart. You weren't looking for it. You didn't feel like you deserved it but all of a sudden you're interested in spiritual things. He says, the Holy Spirit is like a wind. Did you see when the Holy Spirit did give you an email to begin today? Look for the Holy Spirit today. You're going to become a Christian today. No, you're just kind of going along and the spirit of God in a mysterious way broke into your heart and applied what Christ achieved on the cross to you and caused you to be born again. It's an amazing work of God so that you have peace with God so that God isn't angry at you anymore so that you have constant and instant access to God right now who is stronger than you except for time. He could curl that. All of us have that instant access right now. You know that song that we, the hymn, and can it be that I should gain an interest in my say, how is it that you got interested in spiritual things? He came after you first. I love it. And then 16 and 17. Of course, you all know 16 and 17. They have signs at football games and basketball games. John 3, 16 and you wouldn't know that if you hadn't gone to a sports game but there it is for God so love the world that he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Why? Because the spirit came along and helped you believe for 17. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. You're a Christian. If you put your faith in Christ, if the spirit of God has made you a life, you're a Christian. Is God condemning you? Who is it that condemns us now? Who is it that comes to you and says, don't ring out any human names here. But who is it that condemns you really? That comes from the boardroom of hell as well. He's the one that condemns you. He's the one. The evil one who says, you're not good enough. You haven't done enough. You haven't measured up. There's no condemnation Paul said for those who are in Christ. I love that. You have access with God and what does that mean? That means you have favor with God. First Corinthians 12, 13 says this, we were all, when you accepted Christ, we were all baptized into Christ. No matter who you are, Jew, Gentile, slave-free, rich poor, it doesn't matter. We were all given the one spirit to drink, past tense. See, once you're baptized by the spirit, that's not the external baptism. That's the internal. Once you're baptized, you can't be unbaptized. Once you're brought back into the family of God, you can't be ejected because it's a work of God. It's in your heart. You have access. And it means you're a person of great privilege. Do you ever feel like the world is out of control? Me too. It's not. Do you ever feel like you're a little person and a little person is defined as somebody who doesn't have the resources to make anything happen good. My life's out of control. I'm a little person. Tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes make you feel like a little person. I bet they're feeling that up in Kansas right now. We're not little people because we have instant access right now. Constant and instant access to Him. I love that. You have access means that you can come boldly to the father with every issue. There is. The front of the Orlando Sentinel today, two articles, right? The first article is on how they're going to shut down the smoky bones. This killing me. I like Barbara. We understand Barbara Q down here in the South. I'm from Southern California and I've been here for 20 years. I love Barbara. They're going to shut them down. Why? I don't know. There's many reasons. But 600 people nationwide are affected by that. 121-year-old went to work and there was no job. She said, I don't know what I'm going to do. You're a Christian. Something happens to you and you go, what am I going to do? I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to go to bed one night and get up the next morning. And you say, God, this is the issue. This is a stuff. I don't have a job. Or I'm sick. Deal with it. Please. Because you've got instant access to the God of the universe and your life will go on. Your life will probably get a better job. You'll probably thank Him. Thank you for letting this thing go under. Why? Because God's in charge and He turns the bad situations to good, He promised He would. That's no shock. That's what it means to have instant access. You cannot be defeated by love. Nothing is too big to God. Nothing is too harsh. By the way, God, dads, are you ever a little fatigued when you come home and your kids want to talk? Yeah, all right. Every week, every day. Hey, can we talk? Your wife wants to say, you know, you come home and you get a good. Yeah, okay. Great. Good. Good. Good. All right, honey. Good. Good. Kind of back out of the room. Get to your room. You know, you want to go jog and you want to just get out of here. God's never that way. He's never tired. He never said, I've heard it before. I don't want to hear it again. He never says, you know, I need a vacation from all this stuff. All these people keep praying to me. I'm going to Barbados. I'm out of here. He never said, that's what it means to have constant access to the God who knows who cares. Do something about it. He does. He will. I love it when little kids come running up to you and they say, they're crying. They're pointing at it. And you grab their hand and you're kind of looking for the mark and you can't find it. You know, you've seen that. And you get out the magnifying glass and they're pointing to it and says, right there. It's no hurt. God always sees the hurt, though. Just don't see. Always. So why don't we run to him? Others, others listen to your story and they say, yeah, that's not so big a deal. He knows what is and is not a big deal. Sometimes he says to you, son, get over it. It's going to get better. And sometimes he says, daughter, I'm going to fix this. Just give me time. Just give me time. It's all going to get worked out. And even when we mess up and sin big time. Steve often talks in the Born Free Seminar about the fact that it's hard to hug a stiff kid. But you can always hug a dirty kid. You ever notice that? Kid doesn't want to be hugged. You can't hug him. But even if they're filthy, you can hug him. We can always come running back to God when we sin. We have access even then because of what Jesus did. The problem is sometimes we're just too stiff and we keep him away. Why do we do that? When we have instant access to the God of the universe. It's like the guy who fell off the cliff and grabbed onto the tree and he was just hanging there. And he says, somebody help me. Help, somebody help me. Is anybody up there? Help me hurt this voice. This is God. My son just let go and I'll get you silence. Anybody else up there? It's kind of the way we are. When we have instant access, constant access, Jesus has put us back in the garden before we get to the garden. We come to communion. What is it all about? There's two sacraments in the Christian church. One is baptism and one is communion. Baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. It is the entry covenant into the family of God. Family of God, it's the entry sacrament that shows us that we have access to the Father. We baptize kids not because it regenerates them but it shows that they are members of a family who has professed faith in Jesus Christ and gives us good hope and promise that these kids will too embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. Baptism, when we baptize an adult or someone who professes faith, it is the entrance sacrament into this family. It reminds us that we now have access with God. What's communion? It's the ongoing sacrament that reminds us that we have access to the Father. If you're a Christian, you have to take this. Don't pass it by. You say, I send this week, good, confess it and then take it. I send this week too. Take it, take the bread, the unleavened bread, symbolic of the sinlessness of Christ. He bore all of our sins in his body. So take it and remember that you have access. We take it monthly so that we would be reminded that if you don't know Christ, don't take it. But take Christ. Because he is the only way to find that access to the Father through faith in Him. If the Holy Spirit, like a wind has been bugging you and drawing you, bringing you to Him, except Christ, then you can take communion. This morning, I shaved. If you look closely, some people have already said it. I got this big splotch. It's not big. It's a little splotch of blood on my collar. If I see you afterwards, don't tell me it's there. I know it's there. In fact, Karen brought this little stick tied to go. I mean, it's supposed to be good for those kinds of things. I said, I'm not going to do it because I'm going to use it as a sermon illustration. Pastors will kill for a sermon illustration. You know, this is going to come out. I think. But there was nothing that could get the dirt out of our soul, except the blood of Jesus. Your dirt is gone. If you have faith in Him, you take it to heart. Let's pray to Him. So our elders come forward. If you don't know Christ and would like to receive Christ today, pray like this. Father, I've been trying to make life work on my own terms and I give that up today because I've been cut off from you. I've been cut off from other people and I've messed it up. And I have sin in my life that only you can remove. So Lord Jesus, I pray that you come into my life as Savior now. I'm ready. I think you've been working for a long time. Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to be the sin bearer and the sacrifice for our sins. And now we give you honor and pray that as we take of this bread that you would speak to our hearts through this sacrament, through faith, through the Spirit, speak to us and remind us as we confess our sins, as we talk to you, remind us that we have access to you. Help us not to hear the words of the evil one, but to hear the words of the living God that we belong to you. We honor you now for giving yourself for us as we pray and your holy name, Lord Jesus. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.