Ephesians; 1:4 – Election of church age believer, part 42. The elected priest.

Friday January 11, 2019

 

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

 

1Pe 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all 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."

 

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,"

 

To you, believer, the Living Stone is precious (vs. 4). The unbeliever finds Him offensive and stumbles.

 

To the world Christ was a loser. To the Christian, He is the Son of God and the precious Savior.

 

Every person must face Christ on the cross and either mock Him or worship Him by believing on Him. The bleeding, naked Jesus crying out that He is being forsaken by God after He has asked the same Father to forgive them, “for they know not what they do,” is either seen as a loser or as the greatest of heroes.

 

He proclaimed Himself to His people. He worked wonders. He presented Himself to both a Jewish and Gentile court. They killed Him, and so it seemed that He lost. And all His disciples thought so. “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” People distance themselves from losers.

 

Luk 24:17 … 21

And they stood still, looking sad … “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”

 

Yet the resurrection happened. The resurrection proved that love is greater than death, and it proved that Jesus was the greatest winner of all.

 

To many, the resurrection is a fairy-tale, but one that they would rather not openly talk about. When asked about Christ and about His supposed resurrection, they laugh it off, but isn’t it curious that they can’t change the subject fast enough. There is less evidence for evolution than there is for the resurrection of Christ, but they love to talk of evolution for hours, and that is because, unlike Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, evolution does not challenge the very core of their lives, the meaning of their lives.

 

That they have a Creator who loves and judges, opens their minds to failure – that they have no standing before God. All have fallen short and gone astray, and deep down they know this.

 

While a believer is almost always aware of his failure, and a positive believer faces those failures in grace through the cross of Christ, the unbeliever distances himself from his failure, ignores it as he ignores the common call from God through the gospel.  

 

Failures only arise in the heart of the unbeliever occasionally, when alone, laying in bed, those times when for some reason they suddenly become contemplative. They are confronted with a terrifying honesty that all isn’t right, but then cast this life line from God aside, get up in the morning and dress for success, pushing away and forgetting that uncomfortable feeling. The Christian is so much more aware of his failure, and he doesn’t hide it away. He deals with it and does so with the grace and mercy of God.

 

The people of the world judge their success on entirely worldly terms. They stumble over the Stone. The Christian does not. He receives the Stone.  

 

Psa 49:16 Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich,

When the glory of his house is increased;

 

Psa 49:17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away;

His glory will not descend after him.

 

Psa 49:18 Though while he lives he congratulates himself —

And though men praise you when you do well for yourself — 

 

Psa 49:19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers;

They shall never see the light.

 

Psa 49:20 Man in his pomp, yet without understanding,

Is like the beasts that perish.

 

The Christian judges his success on entirely spiritual terms. He glories in Christ alone, and this makes him poor according to the world.

 

Mat 6:19-21

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

 

Luk 12:15

And He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."

 

Luk 16:11

“If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you?”

 

1Jo 2:15

Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 

The church must never judge itself on worldly terms, but unfortunately, many churches do. They judge their success on the number of attendees, the church savings account, the amount of community service. But when we consider Christ on the cross, which was the height of His success in the first advent, how should we judge the success of the church? In light of Christ alone, we see success only in love, charitable virtues, priests of Christ honestly and openly living as elected, royal, holy priests unto Him.

 

1Co 2:1-2

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

 

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."

 

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.

 

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.

 

Isa 7:10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

 

Isa 7:11 "Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven."

 

Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!"

 

Ahaz – king of Judah and blatant idol worshipper. He is about to be invaded by Israel/Syria. Rejects God’s help and tries to make a deal with Egypt and Assyria.

 

Isa 7:13 Then he said, "Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?

 

Isa 7:14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

 

Isa 7:15 "He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

 

Isa 7:16 "For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

 

Isa 8:5 And again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,

 

Isa 8:6 "Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, [peace: a softly flowing spring in the Kidron Valley]

And rejoice in Rezin [king of Syria] and the son of Remaliah [Pekah king of Israel];

 

Shiloah – “sent”. The peaceful flowing spring in the Kidron that filled pools in the city (Rejected His rest). Euphrates (Assyria) will flood the land.

 

Isa 8:7 "Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates,

Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;

And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

 

Isa 8:8 "Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,

It will reach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

 

Isa 8:9 "Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.

 

Isa 8:10 "Devise a plan but it will be thwarted;

State a proposal, but it will not stand,

For God is with us."

 

“God is with us” means that God is your only help. The other nations, representing any earthly or worldly help that is offered, is not with you.

 

The people looked to a confederacy rather than to God’s help. The north made a confederacy with Syria, the south with Egypt and Assyria, and neither of them looked to the God of Abraham for any help.

 

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.

 

Verse 12 is a beautiful line from the Lord that applies to all nations and certain to ours in the current political climate.

 

The ills of a people are never due to the conspiracy of the powerful and influential. They are always due to the people rejecting the way of the Lord.

 

All the great ills that plague this nation and our people are not the result of some conspiracy on the right or left. It’s not because of the few who have power and will do anything to hold it and increase it. The ills of any society result from a great many people, likely a majority, who reject the ways of the Lord. They reject freedom and accept self-interest at the expense of their neighbors. They reject personal rights of others in the interest of their own lusts. They reject compassion, forgiveness, understanding, true education, love, sacrifice, perseverance, hard work, selflessness – all in search of their own personal desires. We are not a theocracy, nor are we a Christian nation, but all men are God’s creation, and His laws are beholding upon all men. Never will there be a nation full of believers in Christ, but there was once a nation that was founded on the laws and principles that believer’s in Christ loved. And in those laws, they allowed all citizens to worship, speak, and assemble as they saw fit, so long as they did not violate the rights of others, and when this was adhered to in most places in our nation, Christianity flourished, as did freedom, production, economy, and innovation. What we are finding now is tyranny of the majority, who want to rid the constitution of the electoral college, and also the tyranny of the minority who find their power on social media. The second one has never been seen in human history until this time.

 

In every society there will be greedy, power hungry people, but it is only in societies where a majority of people reject the ways of the Lord, that the greedy and power hungry are given the reins.

 

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."

 

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.