Ephesians 1 - Part 3
(Bible Study Time 4-3-05)
Last week we saw in Ephesians, Chapter 1, that believers were predestined to be adopted to God as sons by the redemption that is found in the blood of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, while we are sons of God by adoption.
God’s willingness to take certain human beings as his own sons is a doctrine which is first presented by the prophet Hosea. In Hosea’s day, the nation of Israel had forsaken God and His Law. They had taken Baal as their God, and as a result, God said that they were like an adulterous wife. He had been a faithful husband to Israel, but Israel had been unfaithful to God.
God told Hosea to take a prostitute as his wife to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness. As a result, Hosea married a woman named Gomer whose first child was a son named Jezreel. Jezreel pictured Israel’s future destruction. Then Gomer bore a daughter who was named Lo-Ruhamah, and this indicated the fact that God would not have mercy on Israel when her time of judgment was at hand. Next, Gomer bore a son whose name was Lo-Ammi which means "not my people," for God was going to turn His back on the nation of Israel because of her sin. However, God did promise that He would someday restore the glory of Israel.
Hosea 1:9-11 (NKJ)
9 Then God said: "Call his name Lo_Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God.
10 "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there it shall be said to them, 'You are sons of the living God.'
11 Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel!
Hosea clearly stated that in the very same place where God said to Israel, "You are not my people," God will say to Israel, "You are sons of the living God." God pronounced a judgment of destruction and devastation upon Israel but gave the hope that some day they would not only come back to their land, but they would come back as sons of the living God.
Israel’s kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians 700 years before Christ, and the people of those northern 10 tribes have never returned to their land even to this day. But Hosea, Chapter 2, confirms that the northern 10 tribes of Israel will be restored some day.
Hosea 2:13-23 (NKJ)
13 I will punish Israel for the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers; but Me she forgot," says the LORD.
14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.
This is reminiscent of the time that God spent with Israel in the wilderness after Israel refused to enter the promised land at Kadesh-Barnea. He protected them for 40 years in the wilderness as He prepared them to finally enter the promised land.
The Book of the Revelation gives the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophesy and says that God will protect and prepare all 12 tribes of the nation of Israel in the wilderness during the tribulation period. In Revelation, Chapter 12, John speaks of Israel as the woman who gave birth to a child that the devil tried to destroy.
Revelation 12:4-5 (NKJ)
4 The dragon’s tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
Clearly, the woman is Israel and her child is Jesus Christ. The dragon is the devil who tried to destroy the Lord Jesus by means of the crucifixion, but the Lord Jesus rose up from the grave and was taken up into heaven to be with God. Then the Revelation speaks of a time which is still in the future for us.
Revelation 12:6 (NKJ)
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
This will be a period of three and a half years according to the Jewish calendar. Then the dragon is to be cast out of heaven.
Revelation 12:13-17
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Hosea was hinting at this time of tribulation when he said that God would allure Israel and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. Hosea says that there in the wilderness, Israel will turn to God in faith.
Hosea 2:15-23 (NKJ)
15 I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 "And it shall be, in that day," says the LORD, "That you will call Me 'My Husband,' and no longer call Me 'My Master,'
17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely.
19 "I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy;
20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the LORD.
21 "It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer," says the LORD; "I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth.
22 The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel.
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, 'You are my God!' "
So Hosea tells of the time when God will made a covenant between Israel and all of nature during a kingdom of peace and prosperity on the earth. According to Jeremiah, this will be a new covenant, different from the Mosaic Law, for in this covenant God will write His law in the hearts of the people, and as Hosea said, they will all know the Lord. This great New Covenant kingdom will follow the tribulation period and the return of Christ to the earth, and it will be a time when Israel will be called "sons of the living God."
As Paul preached the gospel of the New Covenant kingdom during the Acts period, he boldly proclaimed that Jesus Christ had come to shed the blood of the New Covenant, and he reminded his readers many times that God had made it possible for them to become the sons of God through the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 3:24-26 (NKJ)
24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 4:4-6 (NKJ)
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
Paul goes on in Galatians, Chapter 4, to explain that the Law of the Old Covenant had nothing in common with the Holy Spirit which comes by the New Covenant. Just as Hagar and her son, Ishmael, had to be cast out, even so the law with its commandments and ceremonies had to be set aside for the promise of the New Covenant kingdom to be realized.
In Romans, Chapter 8, Paul reemphasized the fact that Israel’s hope of the New Covenant was based in the power of the Holy Spirit Who brings the believer into relationship with God as a son.
Romans 8:14-17 (NKJ)
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs__ heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
In Romans 9, Paul proved that some Jews were not saved, while some Gentiles were saved. He reminded his readers that God will have mercy on whomever He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whomever He will have compassion. Paul said that some Jews were vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, while other Jews were vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory. Paul quoted Hosea to prove that God will bestow the blessing of the New Covenant only on the believing remnant of Israel.
Romans 9:25-26 (NKJ)
25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved."
26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they shall be called sons of the living God."
Israel’s hope of the New Covenant kingdom was temporarily set aside at the end of the book of Acts, and the Church which is the Body of Christ was revealed in Paul’s prison epistles. These two different groups of believers have much in common. The New Covenant believers of the Acts period and the members of the Church which is the Body of Christ are both redeemed by the same blood which was shed by the Lord Jesus at Calvary. Both groups of believers have the same indwelling Holy Spirit for there is but one Spirit according to Ephesians, Chapter 4. And both groups are called to be sons of God. The prophets spoke of the day when Israel would be called the sons of God, and last week we saw that God has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (Eph 1:5).
Well, I see our time is nearly gone. It has been a pleasuring being with you this morning. Thank you listening and be sure to tune in again next week at this same time for another broadcast of Bible Study Time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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