Ephesians; 1:4 – Election of church age believer, part 43. The elected priest.

Sunday January 13, 2019

 

 Ephesians; 1:4 - Election of church age believer, part 43. The elected priest.

 

3g. The elect are royal priests in the kingdom of God, 1PE 2:1-10.

 

1PE 2:1 Therefore, putting asideall malice [kakia = wickedness] and all guile [dolon = deceit] and hypocrisy and envy and all slander [evil speaking],

 

1PE 2:2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

 

1PE 2:3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

 

1PE 2:4 And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice [eklekton: chosen out one or elect] and precious in the sight of God,

 

1PE 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

 

1PE 2:6 For this is contained in Scripture:

"Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,

And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed."

 

The nation of priests are seen as living stones in the house whose corner stone is Christ. He is our foundation and standing and solid future.

 

1PE 2:7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve,

"The stone which the builders rejected,

This became the very corner stone,"

 

1PE 2:8 and,

"A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense";

for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

 

Those who reject the corner stone in this age are throwing away the greatest standing and future ever offered to man. As Jesus wept at the sight of a soon to crumble Jerusalem, so we weep at the fallen world who refuse to accept the only eternal corner stone and thus house themselves in the only peace available.

 

The prophecy is given in ISA 8:14 referring to the destruction of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The prophecy is given again in ISA 28:16 as the stone of the foundation of the house of God, and he who believes in that Stone will not be disappointed.

 

Israel is given to the world as an example. I think we can confidently assert that any group of people from any part of the world, if chosen to be God’s nation, would have done the same. God has prepared vessels of wrath so that the world may openly see the result of rejecting God’s rest.  

 

Isa 8 concerns the prophecy that surrounds the war between Israel and Judah in which Pekah, king of Israel, partnered with Syria, and invaded Judah, whose king on the throne of David was Ahaz. Ahaz was given the golden opportunity of asking God for a sign, any sign, and he refused. God in return offered a sign anyway, choosing at this time to prophecy that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, ISA 7:14.

 

Through the prophet Isaiah, recorded in chapter 8, Israel was informed that they had rejected the rest that God had offered them and instead trusted in empty alliances with heathen nations. These confederacies would prove weak and unfaithful. Because of this, God was allowing the Assyrians to invade Israel and remove her from the land for the rest of time until the second coming of Christ.

 

ISA 8:11 For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

 

ISA 8:12 "You are not to say, 'It is a conspiracy!'

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,

And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

 

ISA 8:13 "It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your dread.

 

ISA 8:14 "Then He shall become a sanctuary;

But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over,

And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

 

ISA 8:15 "And many will stumble over them,

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught."

 

Sadly, so many in Israel rejected their own house that Christ built, the eternal nation of Israel. Just as those who would not enter the land, barricaded by their own fear, so are the members of the human race who reject the corner stone.

 

It should never be overlooked that though Israel stumbled over the corner stone instead of choosing it, and that God used Gentile nations to discipline Israel greatly, it is also true that God will discipline those nations that do so.

 

One may wonder how this is fair, but we must understand that the nations that come against Israel, though they are used by God, are not forced by God. They are nations bent on plunder, rape, and murder and do so of their own accord. God lifted His protection over Israel, and Assyria, pictured as the great river Euphrates, flooded their land.

 

Anti-Semitism is always evil. It does not matter than they stumbled over the stone. Every nation in history has done the same, plus, every anti-Semitic nation is destroyed.

 

Some, sadly even in the church, some have used the stumbling of Israel as justification for anti-Semitic thought and action. And in fact, some are still doing it. Currently it is done with the disguise that these churches and clergy are pining for the freedom of Palestinians against Jewish occupiers, oppressors, and rights violators and it is all based on an amillennial doctrine of prophecy that started with Augustine in the fourth century and continued in the protestant reformation. The foundation is replacement theology, that the promises given to Israel were removed from her and given to the church. It is a small step from thinking that God has rejected every Jew to implementing anti-Semitic thought and actions.

 

This thinking betrays a lack of understanding of history in the least and a total lack of understanding of the Abrahamic Covenant, the promises of God, the literal interpretation of prophecy, and ignorance of dispensations at the most. Every anti-Semitic nation has been destroyed, which is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.

 

ZEC 12:1 The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,

 

ZEC 12:2 "Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.

 

ZEC 12:3 "And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

 

Thomas Scott [Notes on Zechariah] states, “Stones that men used to try their strength by lifting, which sometimes proved too heavy for them, bruised, or even killed them. Thus all who attempted to injure Jerusalem would destroy themselves, even though all the people of the earth should gather themselves against it.”[sometime around 1800, long before Israel became a nation in 1948]

 

The other reference quoted by Peter is in Isa 28.

 

1PE 2:6 For this is contained in Scripture:

"Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,

And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed."

 

1PE 2:7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve,

"The stone which the builders rejected,

This became the very corner stone,"

 

1PE 2:8 and,

"A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense";

for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

 

Isa 28-35 consists of prophecies which have local significance to Israel and Judah of that time, past prophecies fulfilled, and future ones, culminating in the great war of Armageddon in chapter 34 and the Millennium to follow in chapter 36.

 

So then, in this section we have near and far. We see local prophecy fulfilled and far distant prophecy yet to be fulfilled. It is as if God says, “If I just did what I had said I would, then you can bet that I will do what I have said I will do in the far future.”

 

Ephraim - a name for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. She will soon be in Assyrian captivity due to her long apostasy.

 

ISA 28:1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,Which is at the head of the fertile valley Of those who are overcome with wine!

 

ISA 28:2 Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent; As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.

 

ISA 28:3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.

 

ISA 28:4 And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley, Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer; Which one sees, And as soon as it is in his hand, He swallows it.

 

ISA 28:5 In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people;

 

ISA 28:6 A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.

 

ISA 28:7 And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having visions, They totter when rendering judgment.

 

ISA 28:8 For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.

 

When men lose, or never gain, what makes life meaningful, they resort to stimulants in a weak attempt to give themselves the feeling of meaning.