Ephesians; 1:3 – every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, part 7.

Sunday October 14, 2018
 

Ephesians; 1:3 – every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, part 6.

 

Faith is the art of the worthless.

Faith is not reason.

 

Faith based on human reason will always die. Human reason, meaning the determination of a hypothesis without basis is divine revelation, is always flawed in some way. Some human hypotheses are better than others, some far better, but without the truth from God, they all eventually fail.

 

Faith based on divine revelation will withstand the gates of hell.

 

Life is far too short to wait on striving to live by faith in the spiritual blessings from the Father.

 

Psa 90:1 A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

 

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

 

Psa 90:2 Before the mountains were born, Or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.

 

Psa 90:3 Thou dost turn man back into dust, And dost say, "Return, O children of men."

 

Psa 90:4 For a thousand years in Thy sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.

 

Psa 90:5 Thou hast swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

 

Psa 90:6 In the morning it flourishes, and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades, and withers away.

 

Psa 90:7 For we have been consumed by Thine anger, And by Thy wrath we have been dismayed.

 

Psa 90:8 Thou hast placed our iniquities before Thee, Our secret sins in the light of Thy presence.

 

Psa 90:9 For all our days have declined in Thy fury; We have finished our years like a sigh.

 

Psa 90:10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow [Hebrew: aven – vanity or sin];For soon it is gone and we fly away.

 

The sad fact of man's speedy mortality is traced up to its still sadder cause, man's own sin, bringing upon him necessarily God's wrath. “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”

 

Now, Moses changes the flow.

 

How can wisdom and life and happiness come to such a life that is ruled by mortality and sin, or death and sin as Paul puts it?

 

Psa 90:11 Who understands the power of Thine anger, And Thy fury, according to the fear that is due Thee?

 

Who knows that they are bankrupt before God and that fear is due Him rather than our value or merit?

 

Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days [short and potentially sinful], That we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.

 

The only wisdom we can present to God is the wisdom He gives to us concerning our deliverance from death and sin through His grace and redemption, which wisdom, leads us in a life of obedience rather than a life of sin.

 

Psa 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

 

Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

 

Psa 1:3 And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season,

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

 

Psa 1:4 The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

 

Psa 1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

 

Psa 1:6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.

 

Now that we are under grace should we continue in sin? May it never be. The true wisdom available in this world is the eternal program of God in dealing with mankind’s sin and blessing man through grace. What is the redemption of man and what are the blessings of God and how are they received? Every man must answer these important questions, but he cannot answer them with his human reasoning or intellect alone. God offers the questions and the answers and every man must face the reality of both of them. This doesn’t require a good man or a good mind. The reality is obvious. It doesn’t require humility since the sinner cannot be so. A drowning man is not smart or humble when he admits he’s drowning, neither is he smart or humble when he accepts the hand of a man who has one foot on the land and can save him. It is a stupid man who refuses that hand and tries to save himself from hopelessness.

 

Life for any man may potentially be short and full of sin or eternal and full of righteousness.

 

Faith continues after salvation. The same faith in Christ as our Savior from bankrupt men continues with their object becoming the spiritual blessings in Christ given to us by God Father.

 

Faith in Christ who holds the keys to the kingdom becomes faith in the things that make the kingdom, spiritual blessings.

 

Psa 90:13 Do return, O Lord; how long will it be? And be sorry for Thy servants.

 

“Do return” does not mean the Second Coming. It means a return to grace, favor, and mercy.

 

“Do return” – return to favor. “be sorry” – repent.

 

As we ran out of time last time, I want to make clear that nothing here says that God changes. That would contradict Him.

 

Mal 3:6

“For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

 

Num 23:19

“God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent [nacham];

Has He said, and will He not do it?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

 

1Sa 15:29

“And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind [nacham]; for He is not a man that He should change His mind [nacham].”

 

1Sa 15:35

And the Lord regretted [nacham] that He had made Saul king over Israel.


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