Ephesians 4 Part 6
Bible Study Time 10-23-05
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
Bible Study Time 10-23-05
The Spirit of God works in a fully integrated environment in that every aspect of the Spirit is fully compatible and fully functional with every other aspect of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul puts it beautifully when he speaks of the unity of the Spirit. When we as believers walk in the Spirit, we begin to sense a personal spiritual unity, and we realize that we are indeed complete in Christ.
As Paul describes the unity of the Spirit in Ephesians 4 he says that there is one Lord and one God and Father of all. This stands in contrast to the pagan religions of Greece and Rome. They had many gods who represented the worst of human characteristics.
It’s little wonder that many of the Gentiles converted to Judaism when they came into contact with the true and the living God. They must have been filled with a sense of wonder and relief to hear that there is really only one God, who is Lord over all of creation and who is the Father of all people.
How satisfying it must have been to learn that the one true God does not spend His time trying to help people accomplish their own diabolical schemes, but that His goal for mankind is personal fellowship with Him.
In Luke, Chapter 7, we read about the Roman centurion whose servant was ill. He asked his friends of the Jewish synagogue to go and talk with the Lord Jesus. He thought that maybe they could convince Jesus to come and heal his servant. Obviously, this Gentile had come to know the God of the Jews.
When he was ordered to his post in this remote region of the Empire, he may well have wondered what he had done to offend the gods. But little did he know that the true and the living God was calling him to Himself. When his Jewish friends came to Jesus, they said that he was deserving of the Lord’s attention because “he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.”
In Acts, Chapter 8, we read about the Ethiopian who traveled to Jerusalem to worship the God of the Jews. The Bible says that this was a man of great authority in Ethiopia, but in spite of his power and authority in his homeland, it was the God of the Jews who had captured his heart. He was willing to travel through the desert to Jerusalem to worship the one God who is sovereign over all the earth.
Did these men perceive some sort of personal political or social advantage for themselves by joining the religion of the Jews. That could hardly have been the case for God had made it clear that the Jews were His chosen people. The only people who could hold a position of authority within the Jewish system were those of Jewish descent.
Many people would find such a system offensive, but these men were attracted not to the religious system of the Jews but to the God of the Jews. They must have found the joy that comes with laying one’s personal ambition aside to love and serve the God creation.
The Bible starts at the beginning and tells us why we are here. The first verse says:
Genesis 1:1 (NKJ)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
For thousands of years, the devil has very effectively sold the idea that man evolved from the elements of nature. The pagans all worshiped the elements of nature and believed that the gods behind the forces of nature determined the course of human events.
The purpose of this doctrine of evolution was and is to deny the authority of God as the creator. If God did create all things then He has the right to determine what is right and what is wrong for His creation. He has the right to determine the standard by which all men and all things are judged.
The Bible reveals the truth about God and about man’s relationship to God. Genesis, Chapter 2, says:
Genesis 2:4-8 (NKJ)
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
In passages like this the pagans found at last a logical explanation for why we are here. It makes much more sense to believe that there is one God who is the Father us of us all than to believe that somehow man just appeared as an accident of nature.
The devil is very persistent with his corrupt doctrines, however. In the mid 1800’s Charles Darwin brought the doctrine of evolution over into the realm of science, explaining man’s evolution on the basis of natural selection through genetic mutation. The devil has used this doctrine through the years to corrupt not only theology but science as well.
Jeremiah tells us that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and certainly this can easily be seen in the fact that mankind in general has accepted the doctrine of evolution. Just as many pagans converted to Judaism because they longed for the truth, even so many a calloused heart has turned to the theory of evolution in an effort to escape the God of creation. The Apostle Paul gave a stern warning to Timothy when he said:
1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NKJ)
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
The fact that scientists continue to believe and adamantly fight for a doctrine which has no critical evidence to support its assumptions is evidence in itself that the doctrine of evolution is a doctrine of demons.
King David was a man who rejoiced in the fact that there is one Lord and one God who is the Father of us all. He said in Psalms 33:
Psalms 33:6-11 (NKJ)
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.
David also saw the implication of the fact that God created all things. In Psalms, Chapter 7, he said, “The LORD shall judge the peoples” and then he said, “Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity within me.” He understood that God has the right to judge because He is the creator.
Isaiah says in Chapter 42, “Thus says God the LORD” but before he quotes the LORD he describes the LORD by saying, “He is the one:
Isaiah 42:5-8 (NKJ)
5 . . . who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
Then, Isaiah quotes the Lord as He speaks to the nation of Israel saying:
Isaiah 42:6-8 (NKJ)
6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles,
8 I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.
God is the creator and as such He has the right to judge, and He will not give His glory to another. When I read this passage, I can understand why the pagans were drawn to such a powerful and almighty God who is at the same time kind and compassionate and faithful.
Isaiah actually had the opportunity to see the glory of the Lord at the time of his commissioning. He said (Isaiah 6:1) that he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Then, he said that the Lord told him to preach this message to Israel:
Isaiah 6:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'
10 "Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed."
The Lord told Isaiah the he would preach to the nation of Israel until they covered their eyes and plugged their ears but that he should not expect the people to heed his message.
This passage was quoted many times by the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry and by the apostles during the Acts period. On one such occasion the Apostle John quoted this verse and then said, “These things Isaiah said when he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of Him.” (John 12:41) John’s message is clear. The one God of the Old Testament is the one Lord of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus is the creator God of the Old Testament.
When the centurion saw the miracles of Jesus in his hometown of Capernaum, he believed in Jesus and called Him Lord. When the Ethiopian was told about Jesus, He said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” These men had hearts that were open to the truth of God’s word. Unfortunately, the Jewish people did not.
The Lord Jesus left the Pharisees speechless when He questioned them about the identity of the Messiah. He asked:
Matthew 22:42-46 (NKJ)
42 . . . "What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?" They said to Him, "The Son of David."
43 He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:
44 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool" '?
45 "If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"
46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
The Pharisees believed in the coming Messiah, but they wanted Him on their terms. They wanted to dictate to God who the Messiah would be. As a result, they missed their opportunity to believe in the Messiah and receive the salvation of the Lord. The Pharisees accused Jesus of making Himself equal with God, but the Messiah had to be equal with God in order to be the Messiah.
Paul said in Philippians 2:
Philippians 2:5-11 (NKJ)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There is one Lord, even Jesus Christ, and there is one God who is the Father of us all. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.”
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
As Paul describes the unity of the Spirit in Ephesians 4 he says that there is one Lord and one God and Father of all. This stands in contrast to the pagan religions of Greece and Rome. They had many gods who represented the worst of human characteristics.
It’s little wonder that many of the Gentiles converted to Judaism when they came into contact with the true and the living God. They must have been filled with a sense of wonder and relief to hear that there is really only one God, who is Lord over all of creation and who is the Father of all people.
How satisfying it must have been to learn that the one true God does not spend His time trying to help people accomplish their own diabolical schemes, but that His goal for mankind is personal fellowship with Him.
In Luke, Chapter 7, we read about the Roman centurion whose servant was ill. He asked his friends of the Jewish synagogue to go and talk with the Lord Jesus. He thought that maybe they could convince Jesus to come and heal his servant. Obviously, this Gentile had come to know the God of the Jews.
When he was ordered to his post in this remote region of the Empire, he may well have wondered what he had done to offend the gods. But little did he know that the true and the living God was calling him to Himself. When his Jewish friends came to Jesus, they said that he was deserving of the Lord’s attention because “he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.”
In Acts, Chapter 8, we read about the Ethiopian who traveled to Jerusalem to worship the God of the Jews. The Bible says that this was a man of great authority in Ethiopia, but in spite of his power and authority in his homeland, it was the God of the Jews who had captured his heart. He was willing to travel through the desert to Jerusalem to worship the one God who is sovereign over all the earth.
Did these men perceive some sort of personal political or social advantage for themselves by joining the religion of the Jews. That could hardly have been the case for God had made it clear that the Jews were His chosen people. The only people who could hold a position of authority within the Jewish system were those of Jewish descent.
Many people would find such a system offensive, but these men were attracted not to the religious system of the Jews but to the God of the Jews. They must have found the joy that comes with laying one’s personal ambition aside to love and serve the God creation.
The Bible starts at the beginning and tells us why we are here. The first verse says:
Genesis 1:1 (NKJ)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
For thousands of years, the devil has very effectively sold the idea that man evolved from the elements of nature. The pagans all worshiped the elements of nature and believed that the gods behind the forces of nature determined the course of human events.
The purpose of this doctrine of evolution was and is to deny the authority of God as the creator. If God did create all things then He has the right to determine what is right and what is wrong for His creation. He has the right to determine the standard by which all men and all things are judged.
The Bible reveals the truth about God and about man’s relationship to God. Genesis, Chapter 2, says:
Genesis 2:4-8 (NKJ)
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
In passages like this the pagans found at last a logical explanation for why we are here. It makes much more sense to believe that there is one God who is the Father us of us all than to believe that somehow man just appeared as an accident of nature.
The devil is very persistent with his corrupt doctrines, however. In the mid 1800’s Charles Darwin brought the doctrine of evolution over into the realm of science, explaining man’s evolution on the basis of natural selection through genetic mutation. The devil has used this doctrine through the years to corrupt not only theology but science as well.
Jeremiah tells us that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and certainly this can easily be seen in the fact that mankind in general has accepted the doctrine of evolution. Just as many pagans converted to Judaism because they longed for the truth, even so many a calloused heart has turned to the theory of evolution in an effort to escape the God of creation. The Apostle Paul gave a stern warning to Timothy when he said:
1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NKJ)
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
The fact that scientists continue to believe and adamantly fight for a doctrine which has no critical evidence to support its assumptions is evidence in itself that the doctrine of evolution is a doctrine of demons.
King David was a man who rejoiced in the fact that there is one Lord and one God who is the Father of us all. He said in Psalms 33:
Psalms 33:6-11 (NKJ)
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.
David also saw the implication of the fact that God created all things. In Psalms, Chapter 7, he said, “The LORD shall judge the peoples” and then he said, “Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity within me.” He understood that God has the right to judge because He is the creator.
Isaiah says in Chapter 42, “Thus says God the LORD” but before he quotes the LORD he describes the LORD by saying, “He is the one:
Isaiah 42:5-8 (NKJ)
5 . . . who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
Then, Isaiah quotes the Lord as He speaks to the nation of Israel saying:
Isaiah 42:6-8 (NKJ)
6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles,
8 I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.
God is the creator and as such He has the right to judge, and He will not give His glory to another. When I read this passage, I can understand why the pagans were drawn to such a powerful and almighty God who is at the same time kind and compassionate and faithful.
Isaiah actually had the opportunity to see the glory of the Lord at the time of his commissioning. He said (Isaiah 6:1) that he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Then, he said that the Lord told him to preach this message to Israel:
Isaiah 6:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'
10 "Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed."
The Lord told Isaiah the he would preach to the nation of Israel until they covered their eyes and plugged their ears but that he should not expect the people to heed his message.
This passage was quoted many times by the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry and by the apostles during the Acts period. On one such occasion the Apostle John quoted this verse and then said, “These things Isaiah said when he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of Him.” (John 12:41) John’s message is clear. The one God of the Old Testament is the one Lord of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus is the creator God of the Old Testament.
When the centurion saw the miracles of Jesus in his hometown of Capernaum, he believed in Jesus and called Him Lord. When the Ethiopian was told about Jesus, He said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” These men had hearts that were open to the truth of God’s word. Unfortunately, the Jewish people did not.
The Lord Jesus left the Pharisees speechless when He questioned them about the identity of the Messiah. He asked:
Matthew 22:42-46 (NKJ)
42 . . . "What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?" They said to Him, "The Son of David."
43 He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:
44 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool" '?
45 "If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"
46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
The Pharisees believed in the coming Messiah, but they wanted Him on their terms. They wanted to dictate to God who the Messiah would be. As a result, they missed their opportunity to believe in the Messiah and receive the salvation of the Lord. The Pharisees accused Jesus of making Himself equal with God, but the Messiah had to be equal with God in order to be the Messiah.
Paul said in Philippians 2:
Philippians 2:5-11 (NKJ)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There is one Lord, even Jesus Christ, and there is one God who is the Father of us all. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.”
I see our time is gone. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
No comments:
Post a Comment