Showing posts with label Ephesians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ephesians. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Ephesians: The Doctrine of Divine Choice - Are You Offended at God's Choice?
Ephesians 1:1-5 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
Ephesians is a letter of blessings, the blessings are for the steadfast and faithful, they are spiritual or heavenly blessings, they are from God the Father through Jesus Christ. Now we come to the question, why do the blessings come to us? Why? V4 tells us why.. this is a study on the first half of V4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" This verse teaches a doctrine that is taught in many other verses of the bible, but this verses teaches a doctrine that many people do not like. The doctrine of divine choice, or God's choice. Humans fear those words, they feel uncomfortable and uneasy.. if the subject was the doctrine of human choice, people would be at ease and comfortable, but that God should have a choice, humans don't like that. It makes us feel uncomfortable, that we are not in control. There is no other doctrine that is more offensive to human choice than this doctrine that this verse teaches.
We are all born with a nature that automatically believes in free will.. we all automatically believe in human choice. If we can't decide our choices, than that is not fair. We are born thinking that we as humans have the right to control our destiny. Well, no we don't. God has the right. He is the creator and we are his creation. It was God's choice that the sky would look blue, it was God's choice that grass and leaves would look green. He did not ask for our opinion. Because he made it, he has the choice to decide, not us. Because he is the Creator, he has divine choice. Unconditional election, predestination. God chooses people to be saved according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Friday, October 2, 2015
An Introduction to the Book of Ephesians
The book of Ephesians is a most beautiful book, I know people who have memorized it in its entirety. This post is the first of many based on notes I have made from sermons on this book by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed). I hope that these posts will be a blessing.
Understanding Ephesians, Introduction
Acts 20:17-38
Ephesians 1:1-4 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.:"
Ephesus was the most important city in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. In those days Ephesus had a population of over 600,000 people. It had a harbor in which trade ships traveled. Ephesus was the commercial center of the whole region, built on major trade routes. Ephesus also boasted the temple of Diana, which is the Greek god Artemus, the huntress. This was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The amphitheatre could seat 25,000 people with excellent acoustics. In this city there was a Christian church, a body of believers and the first mention of Paul the apostle visiting the city is in Acts 18. They wanted him to come back again and he said that he would, God willing.
This church was founded or planted by the apostle Paul. Acts 19:1 "And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus:.." He came and preached and lived in Ephesus for two years, Acts 19:10 "And this continued by the space of two years.." When he lived there he was their pastor and taught them sound doctrine. That is why in the book of Ephesians you will not find Paul correcting any faulty doctrine that the Ephesians have because they were well instructed in the word of God. They were a doctrinally sound church. They also were saved from paganism, some of them from witchcraft. When they were saved, they made a clean break with their worldly occultic practices in the past. Acts 19:18-20 "And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." When they were saved they burned their magic books to a value of 50,000 pieces of silver. They burned them because they were converted and the books were evil. They would not sell them because they did not want to pass on that which was evil, they did not want to make financial profit. They did not want other people to read it, they wanted other people to be saved. What is more valuable to you, money or people's souls? Evil and the promotion of evil must be destroyed to obey the bible. Some modern professed Christians love money more than souls, but the Ephesians would not do that because they loved Christ so much. They wouldn't promote anything contrary to Christ.
Understanding Ephesians, Introduction
Acts 20:17-38
Ephesians 1:1-4 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.:"
Ephesus was the most important city in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. In those days Ephesus had a population of over 600,000 people. It had a harbor in which trade ships traveled. Ephesus was the commercial center of the whole region, built on major trade routes. Ephesus also boasted the temple of Diana, which is the Greek god Artemus, the huntress. This was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The amphitheatre could seat 25,000 people with excellent acoustics. In this city there was a Christian church, a body of believers and the first mention of Paul the apostle visiting the city is in Acts 18. They wanted him to come back again and he said that he would, God willing.
This church was founded or planted by the apostle Paul. Acts 19:1 "And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus:.." He came and preached and lived in Ephesus for two years, Acts 19:10 "And this continued by the space of two years.." When he lived there he was their pastor and taught them sound doctrine. That is why in the book of Ephesians you will not find Paul correcting any faulty doctrine that the Ephesians have because they were well instructed in the word of God. They were a doctrinally sound church. They also were saved from paganism, some of them from witchcraft. When they were saved, they made a clean break with their worldly occultic practices in the past. Acts 19:18-20 "And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." When they were saved they burned their magic books to a value of 50,000 pieces of silver. They burned them because they were converted and the books were evil. They would not sell them because they did not want to pass on that which was evil, they did not want to make financial profit. They did not want other people to read it, they wanted other people to be saved. What is more valuable to you, money or people's souls? Evil and the promotion of evil must be destroyed to obey the bible. Some modern professed Christians love money more than souls, but the Ephesians would not do that because they loved Christ so much. They wouldn't promote anything contrary to Christ.
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