Page 82 - Ephesians

closer to God than others. (Many Christians act like that is still
true)

The gentile dogs were down at the bottom. They had no access
to the Holy of Holies. Some of these walls were fifteen feet high.
The veil was about thirty feet high. It was their graphic way of
saying, “You don’t get to God. Stay out!” No barbed wire fences
like you see around a prison. Instead, these walls were beautifully
decorated with elaborate works of art. Hypocrisy! “The outside of
the cup was clean!”

The Jews were under the rule of Rome, who took away from them
many privileges, including capital punishment. There were a few
exceptions, and this was one of them. The Jews had the right to
kill anybody that went beyond that wall. If a gentile went beyond
that wall he was toast. Do you remember the trouble Paul got in?
He got all excited about his liberty in Christ. He knew the line to
Abraham was now through faith. He knew it was circumcision not
made with hands, but circumcision of the whole body made in
heaven by God. So he took his friend, Trophemus, an Ephesian
gentile, and said, “Let me show you the sights.” That didn’t go
well. Acts 21:28&29,

“Israel come to our aid. This is the man who preaches to all
men everywhere against our people and the law and the
place; and besides, he even brought Greeks into the temple
and has defiled the holy place. For they had previously seen
Trophimus, the Ephesian, in the city with him.”

They accused Paul of bringing him into the temple. He probably
didn’t. He carried that the rest of his life. He was put on trial
before Felix in chapter 24:6, “He even tried to desecrate the
temple.” They dragged him outside the temple, knocked him on
the ground, and were ready to kill him. Because of the uproar, the
Romans sent a band of soldiers to stop the chaos. If it weren’t for
them, (and of course the sovereignty of God), Paul, would have
been murdered. I’m trying to show that keeping the separation
between Jew and Gentile was of the utmost importance. An